SECURITY COUNCIL SUSPENDS DEBATE

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31767, 26 August 1968, Page 13

SECURITY COUNCIL SUSPENDS DEBATE

Outcome Of Moscow Talks Awaited

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter —Copyright) NEW YORK, August 25. The Security Council has suspended its debate on the Czechoslovak crisis to see what comes of the talks going on in Moscow between the Soviet and Prague leaders.

Yesterday’s fifth session on the crisis was less acrimonious than the previous ones —both Soviet and Czechoslovak representatives urged the council to cool off its discussions.

Even so, the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Jacob Malik, made seven interventions in an unsuccess-

ful attempt to persuade the council to hear East German representatives who wanted to state their views on the problem.

Asked about a report that President Svoboda had cabled him to ask the council to drop the question, Dr Hajek replied “if there is such a cable, then it is on the way.” The Czechoslovak Foreign Minister, Dr Jiri Hajek. made a long address to the council, saying his country had been “deeply offended and humiliated” by the armed intervention. But he appealed to the council for wisdom to facilitate a solution.

His statement was largely a reiteration of earlier Czechoslovak protests at the occupation and of denials that any legally-constituted authority in Prague had asked for the military intervention.

Dr Hajek told reporters after the meeting that he

hoped the council would keep the situation under review, but indicated that he would prefer it not to try to interfere with the talks in Moscow between President Svoboda and Soviet leaders.

“I think a good atmosphere can be created more by silence than by good speeches,” he said. He saw little point in the council trying to pass a “high-sounding resolution.”

In the council Dr Hajek insisted that the government of Mr Alexander Dubcek was

dedicated to socialism and friendship for other Communist countries. Hb renewed Czechoslovak demands that the occupying forces be withdrawn, but he

did not seek any intervention by the United Nations to that end.

Ending his statement, Dr Hajek said the council could contribute to a solution of the crisis "by taking a wise stand and by helping to create a favourable atmosphere for an effective and expeditious” settlement. In his final statement of the day, Mr Malik read a Moscow dispatch from the Soviet news agency, Tass, about yesterday’s talks and the fact that they would continue today. “The delegation of the U.S.S.R. is deeply convinced that any question arising between the Socialist States can and must be settled by those countries without any foreign interference, especially interference on the part of imperialist powers,” he said. "Because of that view, the delegation of the U.S.S.R. considers that any appeal, any action from any persons which could be used by the imperialist powers and their powerful propaganda media in their own interest will not contribute to the success of measures taken with a view to finding a solution of existing questions.”