“FAIR GO” DEMAND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21830, 28 September 1945, Page 3

“FAIR GO” DEMAND

SMALLER_ POWERS VOICE WITH BIG FIVE DR. EVATT'S CRITICISM LONDON. Sept. 26. Ah emphatic claim for participation on a footing of equality at the council table with the representatives of the five Powers for active belligerents like Australia was made by Dr. H. V. Evatt, Minister of External Affairs, at a press conference.

“Australia has followed with close concern the procedure of the Council of Foreign Ministers,” he said. “We recognise its proceedings will constitute a substantial part of the peacemaking process. The council is limited to the representatives of the United Kingdom. America. Russia, China and France. Such a limitation was improvised solely to meet urgent requirements of the conduct of the war. So exclusive a procedure, however, cannot safely be followed in the peace settlement. Other nations have played a notable part in achieving victory over the enemies, both in Europe and the Pacific.

“The matters with which the council is dealing are of direct concern to the nations relatively few in number, which have maintained active and sustained belligerence throughout the war and who, no doubt, are expected, when the time comes, to help to maintain and enforce the peace settlements,” he proceeded. “Such countries have, on the basis of their war effort, a comparable claim to other countries now represented on the council, to -participate fully in the framing of the peace. Alternatives Offered “We are of the opinion that one of two alternatives should be adopted in relation to the Council of Foreign Ministers —either the active belligerents must be given the right of participation on a footing of equality at the council table with the representatives cf the five Powers or it must be clearly understood that the conclusions reached by the council regarding the terms of the peace settlements shall be submitted_ to a conference in which all the active belligerents will take part and at which it will be agreed that the draft terms cf the settlements shall be open to full and free discussion and amendment. The rejection of both alternatives would rightly be regarded by the active belligerents, not included among the five members of the Council of Foreign Ministers as prejudicial to the achievement of a just end democratic peace.” Dr. Evatt said he included among the active belligerents such countries as New Zealand. Canada, South Africa, Greece, Yugoslavia and Holland. N.Z. Statement Pending

Dr. Evatt emphasised that he could not speak for them, but he knew that they were all agreed in principle to what he had expounded and New Zealand was issuing a similar statement. “A fair go is what we call it in our country and we want it,” he said. “Mr. Ernest Bevin has been prominent in advocating the claims put forward by Australia and other countries and we feel that, in carrying out the armistice terms and the peace settlements, countries like Australia have as much right to participate as Russia or any other country has. We say that \ve, having felt the full _ force .and. fury ot nearly four years of the Pacific war, have an eoual right to participate with Russia and France in everything relating to the armistice and the settlement of the peace with Japan. _ That is the principle of the barest justice while at the same time we respect most highly Russia’s war effort which was predominantly European.”