VOICE OF BRITAIN

Evening Star, Issue 25708, 4 February 1946, Page 5

VOICE OF BRITAIN

MR BEVIN'S BROADSIDE QUESTIONS FOR RUSSIA TO ANSWER LONDON, February 3. The blunt and forceful reply of the Foreign Secretary, Mr Ernest Bevin, to Russian charges of British interference in Greece—a reply which has resulted in urgent despatches of great length being sent from London to Moscow describing in detail Mr Bevin's dramatic diplomatic broadside against antiBritish Communist propaganda at the Security Council meeting—has been welcomed by the British Press. , " Mr Bevin is Foreign Minister of a Socialist Government, but the .world should know that he was speaking yesterday with the voice of the people of Britain," says the 'Daily Mail ' in a leading article. " The people of Britain are 100 per cent, behind him. He was saying openly only what the great majority of Britons have been feeling and discussing among themselves for many months. If the Russians feel they have any cause for genuine suspicion of Britain, Mr Bevin has given them an admirable opportunity for bringing their fears into the light of day. If M. Vyshinsky chooses lo be as frank as Mr Bevin, 'we will welcome it. We believe, with him, that all cards should be tabled face upwards. Only thus can our difficulties be resolved and world peace assured." " The opening of yesterday's dramatic session may have confronted the Security Council with the biggest test yet of its procedure and authority," says ' The Times.' " There could be no plainer proof than the frank exchanges between M. Vyshinsky and Mr Bevin or the inescapable fact that U.N.O. will stand or fall in proportion to the trust or lack of it prevailing among the Great Powers." ' The Times ' says Mr Bevin in effect asked the Soviet Government straightly whether it has sufficient faith*in, and respect for, its pledged British ally to continue in partnership. It is a question which must be answered. It involves the equally important question whether there exists in Britain and the United States the necessary trust in, and friendship for, Russia. Upon these issues the future surely rests.