Russian Diplomacy Under Fire: “Sick Of Nonsense,1 Says Peer

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22891, 10 March 1949, Page 5

Russian Diplomacy Under Fire: “Sick Of Nonsense, 1 Says Peer

(N.Z.P. A.—Reuter—Copyright.) (10.45 a.m.) LONDON, March 9. Calling attention in the House of Lords to the composition, methods and purposes of the new totalitarian diplomacy, Lord Vansittart said that two events, both of which were Soviet diplomatic attempts to sever the last ties with the Western world, had prompted him to raise the matter.

The first was the trial of Cardinal Mindszenty, Catholic Primate of Hungary. Britain had sent a Note about it, but had received a very impertinent reply.

“I don’t see why we should stand any more of it,” he said amid cheers.

The second event was the trial of the Bulgarian pastors. Britain had sent several Notes but so far no reply had been received to several of them. “That can be considered insufferable insolence,” he added Hard Hitting' Promised

“I am about sick of all this nonsense,” he began. “I am going to carry the war into the enemy’s country. There is going to be some hard hitting. “So long as we believe that the 1 functions of diplomacy can be conducted by an underworld, so long as we believe we can have good relations with people who are determined to reject them, we shall have both hands -ied behind our backs.

"Our diplomacy should be developed j* to cope with the adversary who comes from behind the ‘iron curtain.’ ” Lord Vansittart said that British diplomats could not move a mile •without the secret police piling after them. They were treated as pariahs, even at Russian receptions and. there ■ was no reciprocity. Lord Vansittart said that totalitarian, diplomacy had now nothing to do with international relations. Its sole purpose was the destruction of democracy.

“In the old diplomacy, we devoted efforts to the maintenance of peace but in these new hands diplomacy became nothing but an engine of ‘cold war.’ ” He alleged the Rumanian Legation In Paris was used to transmit funds and orders for subversion during the recent i coal strike and, in a minor way, the same sort of thing prevailed in Britain where the Rumanian Legation, like all satellite missions, had been reduced to a sub-section of the Soviet Information Service.

“Odd and Notorious Things”

Lord Vansittart said the Rumanian Legation in Britain numbered about 75. They were grouped and controlled in the AngJo-Rumanian Society, whose principal members were Mr. W. Gallacher, Communist M.P. for Fife, Mr. W. Piratin, Communist M.P. for Mile End, Dr. Hewlett Johnson. Dean of Canterbury, and Mr. D. N. Pritt, Independent Labour M.P. They could guess the purpose and use of that society. Some “very odd and notorious things have been happening at the Czechoslovak Embassy,” he said. He alleged that it used diplomatic bags for smuggling in artificial jewellery. The bulk of the proceeds financed Communist propaganda in Britain and particularly a system for intelligence in factories. Lord Vansittart said that if there were any more abuses by the Hungarian representatives in Britain, the Hungarian Club in London should be closed down. It was nothing but a hotbed of communism. He did not want Britain to be in the position where her security services might be swamped by a multiplicity of conspirators. “I beg the Government to reduce the protests to a rock bottom minimum. What we need are not words but actions which cannot be misunderstood.”