West Germany And Membership Of Council Of Europe

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 April 1950, Page 5

West Germany And Membership Of Council Of Europe

PARIS, March 31 (Rec. 10 a.m.).— The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, meeting at Strasbourg, decided today that Western Germany should have 18 seats in the Council of Europe Assembly and the Saar three 'seats.

The special correspondent of the New Zealand Press Association in London says that, when the Statute of the Council of Europe was drawn up, provision was made for Germany —when she had been given her own Government —to join as an associate member. This provision appeared acceptable to all parties until the French Government suggested that the former German territory of the Saar, now integrated with France, was also entitled to associate membership of the Council. The West Germans immediately protested, claiming that they had been told that the separation of the Saar from Germany would be only temporary, and that if the Saar were permitted to join the Council of Europe as a separate State, it would be tantamount to recognition that its detachment from Germany was permanent.-

U.S. JOURNALIST EXPELLED FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA

PRAGUE, March 31 (Rec. 11.15 a.m.).—The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs today refused to renew the credentials of Mr John R. Higgins, chief of the United Press of America Bureau in Prague and asked him to prepare to leave the country by April 8. It is understood that Mr Higgins was told the Government had decided he must leave because of his constant tendency towards unobjective reporting. Mr Higgins is the sixth Western correspondent to be expelled since the beginning of 1950.