NORWAY POLITELY REJECTS SOVIET OFFER OF TREATY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22887, 5 March 1949, Page 7

NORWAY POLITELY REJECTS SOVIET OFFER OF TREATY

(N.Z.P.A.—Reuter— Copyright.) (11 a.m.) OSLO, Mar. 4.

Norway’s reply to the Russian offer of a non-aggression pact contained a polite rejection. In a Note handed to the Soviet Ambassador. Norway said the Government failed to see the need to reiterate the pledge made on joining the United Nations by a special non-aggression pact. The Note contained an assurance of good neighbourly relations between Norway and Russia, and expressed the Norwegian Government’s conviction that the Atlantic Pact would not serve aggressive aims. It assured the Soviet Government that Norway would not grant bases for foreign military forces on Norwegian territory so long as Norway was not attacked or subjected to threats of attack.

A London messages says that in Oslo today the Norwegian Prime Minister, M. Einer Gerhardsen, speaking in a debate in Parliament on the Atlantic Pact, said Norway’s experience in the last war led her to abandon traditional neutrality. “One of the greatest tragedies of our time is that the Communists and Soviet are doing all they can to prevent the progress of reconstruction of Western Europe. It is difficult to take the Communists seriously when they call us warmongers. “The danger of war never threatens from the democratic countries. All democratic parties, representing an overwhelming majority of the Norwegian nation, stand behind Parliament's decision.”