PEACE CONGRESS “SHOCKED”: BOOS AND HISSES

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 April 1949, Page 8

PEACE CONGRESS “SHOCKED”: BOOS AND HISSES

PARIS, April 23. Two speeches by delegates to the Paris Peace Congress caused the Communist gathering to sit. in stony silence and then hiss and boo.

A British Delegate, Mr Harvey Moore, representing the International Organisation of Democratic Lawyers, shocked the congress by saying that the congress could _ not be for peace and at the same time support the war in China. He added that “proletarian bureaucrats,” as well as other bureaucrats, should realise that all people wanted freedom to change their governments if they wanted to. The delegates sat stunned, and Mr Moore' asked: “Where are the cheers An American delegate, MF John Rogge, was forced to stop speaking by the loud hissing and booing that broke out when he said: “In the Soviet Union there is not enough freedom for political minorities.’ There was a cold silence when he said that he would work for a strong progressive party in the United States and added: “It won’t be a Communist Party.” The Russian author, _ Ilya Ehrenburg, said that the Russian people had no hatred for the French, British and Americans. If the American people were wise they would realise that their leaders, who spoke of releasing the atom bomb, were not only enemies of Russia, but of Americans themselves. •Delegates jumped to their feet and cheered for several minutes when the chairman announced: “We have just received news that Chinese democratic forces have freed Nanking.” The chairman, Professor J. G. Crowther, who is a British historian, led the delegates in cheering.