U.N. DECIDES ON PROBE INTO SLAVE LABOUR: RUSSIA OBJECTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22889, 8 March 1949, Page 5

U.N. DECIDES ON PROBE INTO SLAVE LABOUR: RUSSIA OBJECTS

(N.Z.P.A. —Reuter—Copyright.) (11 a.m.) NEW YORK, March 7. The United Nations approved today an American request for a world-wide inquiry into slave labour. The proposal was submitted to the Economic and Social Council after the American Federation of Labour had charged that millions of Russians were suffering inhuman treatment in labour camps.

The United States resolution did notAmention Russia by name, but called on the International Labour Organisation to include all charges in its i.nvestigation.

The vote on the question of an inquiry was 14 to three, with Russia, White Russia and Poland voting against

The Russian delegates left no doubt during the long debate on the issue that the Soviet would rebuff any United Nations’ efforts to investigate conditions behind the “iron curtain.” They contended the inquiry was a United States scheme to get American intelligence agents into Russia. Poland denied that any slave , labour existed in the Soviet Union. The Polish delegate contended that the only real slave labour in the world was in the capitalist countries. Russia charged that American workers were enslaved by the Taft-Hartley law.