BRITAIN REJECTS SOVIET PLAN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22511, 15 December 1947, Page 5

BRITAIN REJECTS SOVIET PLAN

TREATY ALL SHOULD SHARE VETO USE OPPOSED RIGHTS OF SMALL POWERS (N.Z.P. A.—Reuter—Copyright.) (11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 14. Britain has told Russia and China that all countries that helped to defeat Japan and which have vital Pacific interests should participate in the preliminary conference to draft the Japanese peace treaty. Britain has also declared herself against the use of the veto and has urged two-thirds majority decisions. The Foreign Secretary, Mr. Ernest Bevin, jn Notes to the Chinese Foreign Minister and the Russian Ambassador in London, has thus rejected the Russian proposal for four Power talks on Japan. Mr. Bevin in his Note to China said Britain agreed that the early re-estab-lishment of peace and the normal conditions in the Far East was of paramount importance. A preliminary peace conference should be convened as soon as all countries which contributed to Japan’s defeat, suffered from Japanese aggression and were vitally interested in peace in the Pacific, were entitled to be renresented as principals. Their exclusion would prejudice the efficacy of the settlement in which they had a right to be consulted at every stage. Might Retard Settlement A four Power veto would be likely to retard the settlement and prevent the equitable reoresentation of all the principal combatants’ interests. Britain hoped that the problem would be approached solely in the spirit of trying to achieve a just settlement as early as possible rather than by reference to the rules of procedure which were devised for other purposes. Britain believed that there was nothing in the 1945 Berlin conference which established the Council of Foreign Ministers, nor in the terms of reference of the Far Eastern Commission making obligatory the use of the procedure of either of these two bodies in considering the Japanese peace settlement. Copies of this note to China had been sent to the Russian and American Ambassadors in London. Conference in China? Mr. Bevin repeated these views in a separate Note to the Russian Ambassador. He said Britain would be prepared to accept an invitation to a conference in China, although she believed that Washington might be more convenient because all the countries concerned were already presented there by staffs of experts on the Far East. _ The Note added that Britain considered that there was nothing in the protocol of the Berlin conference establishing the Foreign Ministers’ Council which confined the study of the Japanese peace settlement to that body. The council’s specific tasks were confined to the European settlement. Britain believed that it was neither obligatory nor appropriate for the council to consider other peace settlements. Rigid adherence to the voting procedure involving the veto should not be allowed to impede an early, just Far Eastern settlement. Copies of this Note to Russia have Been sent to the Chinese and the United States Ambassadors.