Preserving Self-Determination

Northern Advocate, 9 April 1947, Page 5

Preserving Self-Determination

Referring to the bitter internal terrorism in Greece, which Mr Truman identified as of Communist origin, Mr Vandenberg said he was in no doubt that there also had been terrorism on the Right and that the United States need not condone the present Greek regime but that it was entitled to expect that the Greeks would build a more equitable and more efficient democracy when relieved of the pressure that had driven them to any sanctuary.

The United States was not “bailing out the British Empire” nor perpetuating the Greek Monarchy, but making it possible for the Greek people to survive in stability and self-deter-mination.

Mr Vandenberg said the bill, far from by-passing the United Nations, was the greatest act of voluntary allegiance to it in the whole story of

the United Nations and even went to Ihe heart of the veto controversy. He added that the United Nations was never intended as a relief organisation and that he knew of no better way to destroy the United Nations than to give it a specific job which it was neither intended nor' prepared to do.

If Greeks, in their extremity, were not helped to help themselves maintain their own healthy right of selfdetermination another Communist dictatorship would arise at this key point in world geography, and then Turkey, long mobilised against the Communist war of nerves, would face neighbouring jeopardy.

The two situations were inseparable. If the United States rejected the plan its moral authority and leadership would die on the spot, and it would multiply its own hazards and weaken the United Nations by multiplying its subsequent responsibilities.