DOMINION NEWS

Grey River Argus, 18 November 1946, Page 8

DOMINION NEWS

AUCKLAND, Nov. 12.

While it was to much to expect the future to be free from difficulties, there was no basis for.gloom y views about world peace, said the AttorneyGeneral (Mr Mason) on his return to New Zealand, after leading the Dominion delegation at the Paris Peace Conference.

“I feel that reports of the conference have given a wrong impression as to the emotion of the delegates,” Mr Mason said. “The strong utterance of divergent views does not imply ill-feeling or lack of self-con-trol.”

Discussing the problem of obtaining a two-thirds majority against the agreed decision of the Foreign Ministers, Mr Mason said the net result was that the conference could only be effective where the Ministers had not. come to a decision. The fate of the Istrian peninsula below Trieste illustrated one of these problems. The boundary line agreed upon by the Council of Foreign Ministers gave to Jugoslavia a coastal strip which was essentially Italian in ito population, history and culture, and whose economy and communications were all linked with Trieste. The South African delegate moved to include this territory in the government ol Trieste, also a town preponderousiy ’ltalian, but such was the influence 1 of the- council .that it was not possible to secure even a simple majority on this necessary act of justice. ' "Every delegation may not always have voted according to its best judgment on the merits of a proposal. Fear of offending one or another of the delegations' or countries was most certainly a factor in determining

which way a vote might be cast,” said Mi’ Mason. "‘The public might have some idea , of that factor, but in my opinion its influence was great- I er than was imagined.” The agreement made as to the southern Tyrol was not made in the conference itself, but by delegates to the conference. It might well be doubted whether “democracy” was understood in the same sense by. those nations' who, until now, had been settling internal governmental problems with the knife and gun as it was by those who for centuries had employed peaceful i methods. '