WESTERNERS SHOCKED

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31764, 22 August 1968, Page 15

WESTERNERS SHOCKED

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright)

LONDON, Aug. 21.

The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia shocked and stunned Western officials who had believed the immediate danger of armed intervention was past United Press International reported.

Western diplomatic sources ruled out completely military action by the West to help Czechoslovakia any more than when Soviet tanks quelled the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. But diplomatic sources said the Western allies would consult together urgently. Western officials had assumed any immediate risk of military action by the Soviet Union and its hardline allies was averted by the Bratislava agreement two and a half weeks ago. However, there had been ominous signs that the Russians were dissatisfied with the way Czechoslovakia’s reforming Communist leader. Mr Alexander Dubcek, had carried out his side of the bargain.

Chief among these was resumption of attacks on the Prague reformers by the Soviet press this week. This appeared to indicate the Kremlin was not satisfied that Mr Dubcek had carried out his pledges. These promises never were spelled out publicly, but the Czechoslovak leader reportedly agreed to clamp down on press, radio and television criticism of the Soviet Union and to keep Czechoslovakia

firmly in the Warsaw Pact alliance. He also was believed to have promised to hold back Prague’s closer relations with West Germany. Rumania and Jugoslavia have sided openly with Mr Dubcek. Protests by the French and Italian Communist Parties, the two largest in the West, also were reported to have been major factors in deterring the Russians from earlier military action. However, British Government sources said the Prime Minister (Mr Harold Wilson) and the Foreign Secretary (Mr Stewart) were informed and were cutting short their vacations and returning to London today to deal with the crisis.

The Associated Press reported that the British Government’s first word of the move came in a post-midnight call by the Soviet Ambassador (Mr Mikhail Smirnovsky) at the home of Lord Chalfont, Minister of State in the Foreign Office. Mr Smirnovsky delivered an oral message for Mr Wilson, who immediately cut short a vacation in the Scilly Isles and headed back to the capital.

The Canadian External Affairs Minister, Mitchell Sharp, said last night the movement of Soviet troops across the Czechoslovak border could set back progress toward an East-West detente, but that there did not appear to be an immediate threat to peace. “There’s little that we can do or little that we need fear concerning any outbreak of hostilities,” he' said. Mr Sharp said he saw no evidence on the basis of early reports to indicate a threat

to the peace, since Czechoslovakia was not resisting the advance.

“We expect the question would be taken to the United Nations and so on if the news is verified,” he added. The Vatican today expressed the greatest concern at the invasion of Czechoslovakia.

“The events are being followed in the Vatican with the greatest attention and concern,” a spokesman said. Vatican sources said Pope Paul was immediately informed last night when news of the invasion reached Italy. Relations between the Vatican and Czechoslovakia, strained for many years, had been improving rapidly under Mr Dubcek’s liberal regime. The Apostolic Administrator of Prague, Monsignor Frantisek Timasek, reported to the Pope in May that the regime had granted several important concessions and that more Church-State issues were under review.

Negotiations for the return from exile of Cardinal Josef Beran, Archbishop of Prague, were to have begun shortly. The Prime Minister of Australia (Mr John Gorton) said in the House of Representatives today: “Australia completely and utterly deplores the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia.

“I can state most firmly that in the view of the Australian Government, such an intervention in the affairs of an independent country is a most serious breach of the United Nations charter,” he said.

“It is especially so when it is apparently motivated by a desire to overcome freedom of expression.” »In Sydney, several hundred-

students and staff members of Sydney’s three universities held a quiet demonstration in the heart of the city today in support of Czechoslovakia. Pamphlets were distributed calling on the Australian Government to “conscript Australian young men to fight in Czechoslovakia.”

The. demonstration, organised by the Students for a Democratic Society, was watched by police, who took no action to break it up.