U.S. Says Russia Is Distorting Issues

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28554, 7 April 1958, Page 11

U.S. Says Russia Is Distorting Issues

WASHINGTON, April 4. The United States State Department has accused the Soviet Prime Minister (Mr Nikita Khrushchev) of distorting the United States position on the summit and disarmament issues. It said that this was done against a background of Soviet “slaughter” arid “treachery” in Hungary. The statement was evoked by public speeches by Mr Khrushchev during his visit to Budapest. It cited - the Soviet Union’s record of standing against the majority in the United Nations on disarmament issues. Mr Khrushchev said that President Eisenhower and Mr Macmillan should follow the Soviet Union’s lead in suspending nuclear tests—and that the gesture would be remembered for centuries. He also said that the Soviet Union would agree to international supervsion of a test suspension. The State Department press officer (Mr Lincoln White) said that the Soviet Union had rejected a United Nations resolution last November calling for international agreement on a step-by-step disarmament programme. He said that the Soviet had also blocked efforts to carry through a resolution setting up a 25-nation disarmament commission. Goodwill Shown Mr White said that those resolutions showed the goodwill of the countries which voted for them, including the United States. He said that his charge of distortion by Mr Khrushchev grew from the impression the Soviet Prime Minister had given that the United States was either obstructing a summit meeting or was not responding to Soviet proposals. Referring to Mr Khrushchev’s suggestion that the Western Powers follow the Soviet Union’s test suspension announcement with action of their own, Mr White said: “It is perhaps significant that this statement by Mr Khrushchev is made at Budapest, where the U.S.S.R. demonstrated its ‘goodwill’ by the slaughter of Hungarian people just over a year ago when they sought to lift from their backs the yoke of a foreign-imposed domination.” Budapest Speech At Budapest, Mr Khrushchev said the world had greeted “with disappointment and despair” President Eisenhower’s response to the Soviet announcement. The Soviet leader was addressing a mass rally during celebration of the Soviet liberation of Hungary from Hitler, 13 years ago. He spoke from a tribune raised on what was the base of the Stalin statue, destroyed by demonstrators during the 1956 anti-

Communist rising. A giant military parade had just marchc J past the tribune. Mr Khrushchev said: “If Eisenhower really thinks that we have stopped atomic and hydrogen bomb tests for propaganda reasons, why does not he and other Western statesmen conduct the same propaganda? And why do not they, with this aim in view, call a halt to atomic weapon tests? Little Cheering A ripple of applause went through the massed crowds when Mr Khrushchev, holding his homburg aloft, first appeared on the official tribune—but there was litle cheering from 4 he crowd during the ceremony. In London, the British Foreign Office spokesman today reaffirmed that the offer of the Western Powers made last July, to set up an expert committee to work out methods for inspecting observance of the agreement to suspend nuclear tests with Soviet co-operation still held good. He was commenting on the statement by Mr Khrushchev that if the absence of a control and inspection system was hindering the United States and Britain from following the Soviet decision to suspend nuclear tests, Russia would agree to international supervision.