NORWAY PREFERS ATLANTIC PACT TO SOVIET PACT

Grey River Argus, 22 February 1949, Page 5

NORWAY PREFERS ATLANTIC PACT TO SOVIET PACT

WiO Improve Her Airfields and Harbours

(Rec. 9.0). LONDON, February 21. Norway’s reply to the recent Russian offer of a non-aggression pact will be a polite rejection, and the Norwegian Government will secure the country’s formal adherence to the North Atlantic Pact as soon as possible. This is reported by the Daily Telegraph’s correspondent at Oslo. He says: Norway’s contribution to the alliance, as at present planned, would be the expansion of her main harbours and her airfields. This would enable her, in the case of armed aggression, to receive the fullest possible military aid from the United States and from other member States. It is emphasised that this would not be tantamount to the granting of bases to foreign States in peace-time. It would be purely a Norwegian undertaking, and carried out by Norwegian nersonnel, under the terms of a regional security group within the framework of the United Nations Charter. Such a development would, primarily, refer to the airfields at Sola, outside of Stavanger; at Gardemoen, north of Oslo; and at Trondheim; and also to the harbours of Kristiansand, Bergen, Trondheim, and Narvik. There are three reasons why the Norwegian Government wants to see the country’s adherence to the Atlantic Fact. They are: (1) They want a hand in the shaping of the final draft of the Pact. (2) They hope, thus, to ensure the highest possible priority on United States arms deliveries. (3) They wish to avoid the suggestion that Russia’s recent diplomatic offensive has shaken their resolve. , The correspondent also says: It is understood that the draft of the pact as it stands at present, provides, firstly for the establishment of a Permanent Military Commission, upon which Norway would be represented; secondly, for the expansion of the Norwegian airfields and harbours; thirdly, the promise of United States aid to any -member State that might be the object of aggression. . Norway, in her reply to Russia, will, probably, reiterate her. peaceful intentions and her determination not to grant bases to foreign troops, except in the case of a direct, immediate and obvious threat of aggression. Since it is clear, from the Soviet Note, that there is no danger of aggression from Russia, Norway will maintain that there appears to 'be no need for such a pact as Moscow suggests. . Norwegian sources have received quietly the reports of the recent Soviet troops’ movements along the Finnish border. They have regarded them, in the absence of further information, as having more basis in propaganda than the truth. norwegianFukely TO LINE UP ■ -

LONDON:, February 20

The Norwegian Labour Party Congress unanimously adopted a resolution declaring that Norway must seek security in binding cooperation with the Western Democracies. The resolution added that such co-operation must support the United Nations Charter, and be purely peaceful and defensive in form and content. The resolution said that co-operation on Western Europe’s economic reconstruction was in full swing but, to preserve peace, co-opera-tion must also include political and defensive measures. Painful experience had shown that isolated neutrality led nowhere.

The Norwegian Government is a Labour Government, and the Oslo correspondent of the British United Press says that the Labour Party resolution means that the Foreign Minister, Dr. Lange, when he reports to Parliament, will be sure of receiving support for whatever proposals he makes' about Norway's part in Western security.

SWEDEN “GOING ALONE?” The British United Press Stockholm correpondent quotes the Swedish Prime Minister, Mr Tage Erlander, as saying that there would be no more Scandinavian defence negotiations. The split between tne three Scandinavian countries was a fact. , The Times Stockholm correspondent) says that all the Swedish parties are willing to accept the consequences of the renewal of the neutrality policy, to which the offer of a Scandinavian defence pact was a clear break. Public opinion is prepared for new sacrifices for rearmament and Swedish experts are working at high pressure to bring Swedish armaments and training to the highest pitch of efficiency. DENMARK’S LINE The general feeling is that Denmark will follow Norway's lead, though somewhat reluctantly, but will try to keep in close contact with Sweden. BELGIAN HOPES In Brussels, the Belgian Prime Minister, M. Spaak, told a Socialist Partv meeting that the Atlantic Pact would create a bloc capable of making a “'considerable impression” on any possible aggressor. He said that the small nations must group themselves to ensure their security. The five-Power Western Union Treaty and the Atlantic Pact were instruments intended to maintain peace by the unitv of those nations, who were decided not to make war. M. Spaak reaffirmed his conviction that a new world war was not imminent and stated that he believed the East and the West could develop their own policies without a clash. leading”republican UPHOLDS ATLANTIC PACT STRONGLY (Rec. 9.50) WASHINGTON, Feb 21 Senator Robert Taft, Republican, to-day came out in support of a strong North Atlantic Security Pact that would pledge the United States aid to Western Europe in the case ot qT. tcick Senator Taft, who had frequently opposed the Government s foreign policy, said that he favoured a Treaty similar to the Western Hemisphere Defence Pact, which was signed in 1947, at Rio Janiero. The Rio Pact is based on the principle that an attack on any American nation is art attack on all.