AID FROM UNRRA REMINDER TO JUGOSLAVS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 August 1948, Page 5

AID FROM UNRRA REMINDER TO JUGOSLAVS

(Rec. 10.25 a.m.) BELGRADE, August 12. The British Ambassador, Sir Charles Peake, rebuked Jugoslavia at the Danube Conference for its charges that America and Britain were attempting economic and political penetration in seeking participation in the Danube Commission, says the Associated Press correspondent. Sir Charles Peake said the Jugoslavs had conveniently forgotten the UNRRA aid which they had accepted without any fear of economic and political penetration. The United States had offered to trade away its seat on the new Danubian Control Commission in return for an Austrian or German representative. Soviet Proposal The conference was debating a Soviet proposal that membership on the commission be limited to the Danubian countries. Mr Bebler. the Jugoslav Deputy Foreign Minister, asserted that the American delegation was not sincere in claiming that its only interests in the Danube lay in peace and economic progress. The British delegation's participation in the Danube Conference was entirely without prejudice to Britain’s rights and privileges under the 1921 Danube Convention, said Sir Charles Peake, to the conference yesterday. British authorities said that Sir Charles Peake’s remarks constituted notice lo the conference that Britain might withhold her approval of the decisions of the conference and later insist on a ruling, probably from the International Court of Justice, on whether the 1921 convention was still valid. American Attitude In Washington the United States Secretary of State (General G. C. Marshall) said that Russia’s proposals for navigation on the Danube would obstruct free trade on the river, and the United States would not agree to them. He added; “The Danube provides a route of commerce for many' Central and Eastern European countries, but the Soviet and its satellites are trying to gain control of the river at the expense of the general restoration of prosperity in Europe.” General Marshall said that the Danube conference, where the Western Powers were a minority, was “an excellent example” of the difficulties the United States encountered in all its negotiations to settle Europe’s problems. “But we must not compromise on great principles to achieve agreement for agreement’s sake," he said.