SAN FRANCISCO VOTING POWER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 6 April 1945, Page 4

SAN FRANCISCO VOTING POWER

THE present meeting of the British Commonwealth partners in London as a preliminary “to the San Francisco conference, whenever that may be held, is capable of misinterpretation by those members of the United Nations who continue to nnd our Commonwealth set-up rather puzzling. Pains are being taken to point out that the meeting is in no sense an attempt to mobilise a British block vote at .San Francisco, but merely an opportunity for exchanging information and ideas. As full members of United Nations Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, as well as India, each has a vote.; so has the United Kingdom, but the*British Commonwealth as such has no vote at all. This emphasises the sovereign powers enjoyed by the selfdetermining Dominions. It will be conceded at once that they have a strong identity of interests and the present talks may well result in a common outlook about the broad principles of the world security organisation, which is the main item on the agenda for San Francisco, because it is unusual to find the Commonwealth partners pulling against one another. But any lines of policy would be arrived at by mutual consent, not through imposition by Britain, who shows her appreciation of the Dominions’ status by calling them into consultation. Soviet Russia’s .constitutional position is different. Stalin has set in motion a system of decentralisation of control which might lead subsequently to a structure somewhat resembling that of the British Commonwealth. At present, however, the Ukraine and White Russia, for whom Russia may claim votes at the conference, are not sovereign States but integral pants of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Since they have not long been liberated from the yoke of Hitler there has been no time to define their constitutional status. At present they are not separate members of the United Nations. Russia is, and, as such, has one vote at San Francisco. Whether she is to be given more depends on the decision of the delegates assembled there. The United States ■ has made it clear that she will not ask for more than one irrespective] of what Russia does.