QUEST IN BALKANS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22210, 21 December 1946, Page 3

QUEST IN BALKANS

TRUTH ABOUT GREEK STRIFE

SURPRISING UNITY ON DECISION “MOST POSITIVE ACTION” BY U.N. COUNCIL , (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (11.30 a.xn.) NEW YORK, December 20. The decision to send'-an investigating commission to the Balkans to dig out the truth about who is responsible for the armed strife in northern Greece is regarded as the most positive action in a major case yet taken by the Security Council. A surprising amount of harmony attended this momentous decision. The New York Herald Tribune correspondent said that Russia, which killed a suggested inquiry in the Balkans three months ago with the veto, not only kept the veto sheathed but expressed the hope that the investigation would help to bring tranquility to Europe’s old trouble spot. ‘' The New York Times says that Russia set a precedent yesterday when M. Gromyko insisted that his abstention from voting did not mean that he exercised the veto. .r M. Gromyko, Russia, in the Security Council, proposed that the investigation of the strife along the frontiers be extended to include conditions inside Greece itself but not those inside Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. He moved an amendment to the American motion, which 'provides that the council send a commission to visit such tcrritoiy of all four Balkan States as is deemed necessary to discover the cause of the friction. M. Gromyko said the council already had sufficient evidence to. *prove that the Greek Government was the cause of the unrest, but Russia did not object to the council sending investigators, providing they went in accordance with the terms of his amendment. He repeated his charges that the British troops in Greece were one of the principal causes of the strife and challenged the council to hear evidence from Greek "democratic leaders.”

With Britain and Egypt abstaining, the Security Council, by nine votes to ml, decided that its investigation be limited to “north Greece and such places in other parts of Greece, Albania. Bulgaria and Yugoslavia as the commission considers should be included”

The council also agreed that the commission should consist of representatives of each of its 11 members.

The' adoption of the proposal to limit the investigation’s scope represented concessions to both sides.

The Greek Army claimed that 40 guerrillas were killed in an eight-hour fight on Wednesday at Deskati. a village in the Khasia mountains. Mopping up is continuing

It is offi' ially announced that 300 bandits were killed. 300 wounded and more than 500 captured in the last fortnight. The Belgrade radio announced that Greek guerrillas in Greek Macedonia would oe glad to assist the United Nations’ mission in drawing up the report on the situation in Greece. The guerrillas suggested that the mission parachute behind their lines. The Greek Third _ Army Corps announced that what is described as “a Russian observation plane” made a forced landing near Siderokastron, says the Salonika correspondent of the Associated Press. The plane was apparently lost. The announcement added that the crew had been well treated.