Munro To Speak On Hungarian Issue

Press, Volume C, Issue 29626, 23 September 1961, Page 11

Munro To Speak On Hungarian Issue

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NEW YORK, September 21. The United Nations Steering Committee tonight decided in the face of Soviet bloc objections to give a hearing to the United Nations representative on Hungary, Sir Leslie Munro, of New Zealand.

The committee was debating a United States proposal that the question of Hungary be inscribed on the General Assembly’s agenda. Delegates voted 17-3 in favour of hearing the United Nations representative. Sir Leslie Munro, the former New Zealand Ambassador to the United States, was appointed in 1958 to investigate the situation in Hungary in the wake of the 1956 uprising, but was refused entiy into the country. Soviet Protest The Soviet Union today protested at Sir Leslie Munro’s request for a hearing. The Soviet Union’s resident representative said he considered it “impossible” to have the United Nations representative given the floor, asking on what basis of rule of procedure it was suggested that a “private individual” be invited to address the committee. Bulgarta and Czechoslovakia supported him. After the vote, the committee resumed discussion of the United States proposal that Hungary be debated in the General Assembly. Mr Adlai Stevenson (United States) said this was “an urgent and important” issue, and “an essential part of unfinished General Assembly business.” It had been inscribed on

the agenda for the 15th session, but had not come up for discussion. The committee later voted by 15 to three, with two abstentions, to inscribe the item on Hungary on the agenda.