RUSSIAN ATTACK ON BRITISH COLONIAL POLICY

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 October 1948, Page 5

RUSSIAN ATTACK ON BRITISH COLONIAL POLICY

(Rec. 10 a.m.) PARIS, Oct. 12. Britain had imposed an “unnatural economy” on her African colonies with the aid of police forces, said Mr A. I. Galagan (Ukraine) in a debate oh the report on non-self-governing territories in the General Assembly’s Trusteeship Committee. ’ He claimed that the large crops of cocoa, cotton, palm-oil and ground nuts being grown in West Africa were not of interest to the native populations, but were “purely developed for export at the expense of their indigenous cultures.” Mr Galagan expressed alarm at the “rate at which/ American concerns were penetrating into the Belgian Congo’s iron ore.” He added: “Foreign monopolies are extending their activities and subjugating the interests of the native populations, who receive only a few coppers in return.” Mr Pavlov (Russia), during the Social Committee debate on human rights, assailed the “terrorism of the negroes” in the United States, the alleged oppression of Indian minorities in South Africa and the “discrimination against natives” in the British colonial territories. The Social Committee voted 26 to none, with eight abstaining, on the first article of the human rights declaration, stating that all humans, are born free and equal in dignity and rights.