Russian Troops In Hungary Criticised

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29068, 3 December 1959, Page 17

Russian Troops In Hungary Criticised

(Rec. 10 p.m.) NEW YORK, December 2. The determination to maintain Russian troops in Hungary, confirmed by the Hungarian Prime Minister, Mr Janos Kadar, was a “dismal introduction” to the forthcoming debate on Hungary in the United Nations General Assembly, New Zealand’s Sir Leslie Munro said last night.

Sir Leslie Munro, who is the United Nations special representative on Hungary, will present his report on recent developments in Hungary to the Assembly within the next few days. Keeping Russian troops in Hungary was in direct opposition to General Assembly resolutions, Sir Leslie Munro said in a speech at the Overseas Press Club. The Soviet Prime Minister, Mr Khrushchev, had said nothing to contradict Mr Kadar and showed “no inclination to normalise the Hungarian situation by any withdrawal of Soviet troops,” he said. He could not and would not accept the argument that it was a sin to debate Hungary when there was a thaw in the cold war. “One does not eliminate an evil by seeking to sweep jt under the carpet,” he said. “Is the perpetuation of the present repressions in Hungary to be part of the price for thawing the cold war?” Sir Leslie Munro, who formerly led the New Zealand delegation to the General Assembly, said that Mr Khrushchev must make more constructive proposals to ensure peace. “We need more than words —we need deeds,” he said. He chaUenged Mr Khrushchev on a statement which he said the Soviet leader made in a recent article in the magazine “Foreign Affairs.” This was that the Soviet Union had liquidated its bases on the territories of other States. Be-

sides maintaining troops in Hungary, the Soviet Union still had bases in Hungary, Poland, Albania, Rumania and Bulgaria, Sir Leslie Munro said. Mr Khrushchev’s statement that the Soviet Union always stood for non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries could also be contradicted. In 1956, the Soviet Union interfered in Hun, gary to “crush” the Hungarian revolution, he said. He opposed admission to the United Nations of Communist China, which, he said, had openly proclaimed its belief in the use of force and was not to be called peace-loving.