U.S. BACKS DEMAND FOR U.N. PROBE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22586, 15 March 1948, Page 5

U.S. BACKS DEMAND FOR U.N. PROBE

CHILE’S CHARGE AGAINST SOVIET

MOVE TO PLACE ITEM ON AGENDA SEQUEL TO COUP IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA (N.Z.P.A.— Copyright.) (11.30 a.m.) WASHINGTON, March 14. The State Department today instructed the United States delegation to the Security Council to vote in favour of placing on the agenda the Chilean charge that the Soviet engineered the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia. This is reported by the United Press, quoting authoritative sources.

The American decision virtually assures the complete hearing of the complaint.

Seven council members must approve of placing the -item on the agenda, and the United States decision should attract at least six votes.

British officials have indicated they would vote with the United States. Russia is considered certain to oppose the motion, but as the veto normally docs not apply to agenda questions, the Soviet will not succeed in stopping the move.

The Chilean decision to ask. the Security Council for an investigation ot the events in Czechoslovakia was a provocative gesture and an impertinent provocation, said the Prague radio, according to the Associated Press correspondent. .“The February events threatened only traitors’ < security,” added the Prague radio. “The purification of the tense atmosphere in our political life was mostly an internal affair of the wording people and the purge of political parties was the parties’ own affair. Chile filed a formal protest with the United Nations asking the Security Council to investigate the charges by M. Papanek, the chief Czechoslovak delegate. against Russia in connection with the Communists’ seizure of power m Czechoslovakia.

The United Press reports that Russia will be named in the council as the engineer of the coup on February 20 in which the Czech Communists seized power. United Nations observers expressed the belief that it will, perhaps, be the most serious matter ever handled in the United Nations.

The Secretary-General, M. Trygve Lie, shelved a similar request from the Czech delegate, M. Jan Papanek, because it did not originate with a member Government.