VOTE OF UNO ASSEMBLY WANTED- British Challenge To Soviet On Pact Issue

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 April 1949, Page 8

VOTE OF UNO ASSEMBLY WANTEDBritish Challenge To Soviet On Pact Issue

NEW YORK, April 14.

Mr Hector McNeil (Britain) today challenged Mr Andrei Gromy: ko (Russia), who yesterday in the United Nations General Assembly strongly condemned the North Atlantic Treaty, to file a formal complaint in the United Nations against the pact, so that the Assembly could vote on it.. Mr McNeil was speaking in the Assembly during a debate on proposals to restrict the veto. Mr McNeil said that Mr Gromyko himself knew that the pact did not provide for military alliances for aggression. “Who for a moment believes that Norway has any aggressive design against the Soviet Union?” said Mr McNeil.

Mr McNeil accused Mr Gromyko of slandering the British Government. He said that in Britain’s view the British-Soviet Treaty of 1942 was still in' effect, and that the Foreign Secretary (Mr Ernest Bevin) had .made continuous efforts to have it extended. “Not only do we not seek to escape from the treaty, but we are passionately anxious that the Soviet Union should feel herself bound by it.” Defence Only

He added that nothing, in the United Nations Charter conflicted with the intention of the signatories of the North Atlantic Treaty. It was so patently defensive in. character, he said, that only those who contemplated aggression had any reason to oppose it. Referring to Mr Gromyko’s statement that none of the pact signatories had suffered armed attack from Russia, Mr McNeil, commented: “That is about, the only kind of attack we have not suffered.” Mr McNeil said that Mr Gromyko claimed to speak for- the common man, but he and the other Russian delegates lived in isolation at a Long Island estate instead of mixing with the people as. other delegates did. “I and others believe that Mr Gromyko and his colleagues have long been out of touch with the common people,” he added. “I appeal to Mr Gromyko to go to a delicatessen, bus, or subway and listen to what people have to say about the situation from which the pact was born.” Answering Mr Gromyko’s assertions that the Russian use of the veto had always been in the interests of the people of, the world, Mr McNeil

said: “Mr Gromyko trifles with our time, and insults our intelligence. His assertion is the most absurd generalisation ever offered to the Assembly.” Mr McNeil said that the United Nations would grow in strength and become more effective ..when Russia acknowledged with all the other Great Powers that they were not the possessors "of all the wisdom or all the power. New Zealand’s View Sir Carl Berendsen (New Zealand), speaking today in the debate on the veto, said that so long as the veto existed in any form there could never be a permanently effective system of collective security. Recalling the fight against the veto at San Francisco by Dr 11. V. Evatt (Australia), he said: “Is it suggested that Australia played no part in the Great War? My own Prime Minister, Mr Petei* Fraser, also had a significant part in the fight against the veto. Don’t the war graves of New Zealanders throughout the world provide undying evidence that my own small country does not. confine support of its principles to words alone?”- x Sir Carl Berendsen said that Now Zealand had • always opposed the veto and would continue to oppose it. Referring to the Atlantic Pact, Sir Carl Berendsen said that he did not think there was anybody outside a mental hospital who retained the view that peace could be kept by words alone. He added: “I don’t want to be misunderstood, because I would give my' right hand for the success of the United Nations.”