REFUGEE CAMPS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 April 1946, Page 5

REFUGEE CAMPS

JUGOSLAV DELEGATE’S ACCUSATIONS BEHAVIOUR CONDEMNED LONDON, April 18. Jugoslav’s delegate, Dy. Bebler, angrily rejected a ruling of the British chairman, Mr. Hector McNeil, and threatened to withdraw from the United Nations Refuge Committee, when Mr. McNeil ruled at to-day’s meeting that the Committee could not discuss a motion for investigating the conditions of refugee camps in Europe.

Belgium tabled the motion, which Mr. McNeil said was not within the competence of the committee. Mr. McNeil answered Dr. Bebler’s protest against closing the debate by saying there was no debate. He appealed to the committee not to get heated. Dr. Bebler continued to interrupt, and when Mr. McNeil had to leave for the House of Commons, his successor in the chair, Poland’s delegate, M. Josef Winiewicz, had no more success in pacifying the Jugoslav delegate. Finally, M. Winiewicz adjourned the meeting in order to consult his fellow vice-chairman, M, Karel Lisicky. When the committee resumed, the Netherlands delegate, M. Verwey Jonker, said: “Dr. Debler should try to behave decently as a member of a decent assembly.” Dr. Bebler had accused the absent Mr. McNeil of adopting a dictator-like attitude. M. Winiewicz had asked the Committee to decide whether to refer to the discussion which Dr. Bebler had interrupted, or to go on with the agenda. a Dr. Debler rose and charged that the camps in Germany and Italy contained army traitors and collaborators. He claimed that the war criminals at Trieste were attempting to demoralise the Jugoslavs. Dr. Beble” described the committee as a tribunal which wished to avoid sentencing criminals.

Sir George Rendel said: “My eardrums nearly burst listening to Dr. Bebler’s voice denouncing everybody in Western Europe. Dr. Bebler’s conduct against Mr. McNeil almost beggars description. I am horrified, and not accustomed to such conduct in assemblies of reasonable civilised men. The committee then adjourned.