HUMAN RIGHTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26077, 14 February 1946, Page 5

HUMAN RIGHTS

ISSUE REVIVED UNITED NATIONS AGENDA MORE RUSSIAN AMENDMENTS (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 13. Mr Vyshinsky, in a passionate speech to-night at the U.N.O. General Assembly, urged the Assembly to pass the Soviet proposals regarding refugees which were rejected at the committee stage. Mr Vyshinsky said the Russian delegation approved of the committee’s report, which recommended that refugees who objected to returning to their own countries should not be compelled to do so, but the Russian delegation proposed an addition. Pounding the table with his fist, he said: “Some refugee camps are being transformed into centres for antidemocratic and Fascist propaganda which is carried out by lying, terror, and calumny. The Soviet asks that these camps must not be used for propaganda against the interests of the United Nations, and the interests of the refugees’ countries. Steps should be to their countries or to the countries taken to see that quislings, traitors, and war criminals should be returned where they committed crimes. There are many officers administering camps,” he added, “ who are of a highly suspicious, and sometimes criminal, character.” Mr Vyshinsky proposed the following addition to the report: “The personnel of refugee camps should be first of all composed of representatives of States whose citizens are refugees.” Mrs Roosevelt, who opposed the Soviet proposals in the committee stage, did so again in the General Assembly, in a speech punctuated by bursts of applause from delegates, and the public gallery. She said the United Nations were trying to consider the rights of man with a broader outlook. She added that none had disagreed in committee that those who had taken an active part against their country should be returned and punished, “but there are differences. Some persons fought against their countries’ enemies, but are unwilling to return because they disagree with the present Government of their country. I think we have shown in the past few days that we do not intend to have refugee camps used as places of political agitation.” (Mrs Roosevelt was referring to the raid by occupation constabulary on camps near Nuremberg and Munich.) Mrs Roosevelt concluded: “The Russian amendments are restrictive of human rights and freedom.” M. Winiewicz (Poland) supported the Soviet amendments, and expressed regret that the report did not refer to the view expressed in committee that Allied soldiers who contributed to the common victory, and had elected not to return to their own country, should not be ranked as refugees. They deserved something more than the status of destitute exiles in an alien land.

Jugoslavia also supported Russia. Mr Hector McNeil, expressing Britain’s opposition to the amendments, said “ propaganda ” was a subtle elusive term of which no delegate had offered a definition. Britain had rejected the amendments on the principle that one person could not be the accuser and the judge of another. He asked what the purpose was of demanding that a supervisor should be of the same nationality as the supervised. Mr McNeil added: “I am proud of the many refugees to whom Britain has given asylum. There is none of whom I am prouder than Karl Marx.” Mr Fraser (New Zealand) said no man loving freedom would agree that those objecting to the government of their country should be placed under the subjection of those they opposed. It was not tolerance that brought the world to war, but intolerance. The voting on the first Soviet amendment—namely, that propaganda against the United Nations and its members or against the return of refugees to their country of origin should not be permitted, was 31 against and 10 for with two abstentions. The second Soviet amendment—namely, that the personnel of refugeedisplaced persons’ camps should first of all be composed of persons of the nationality of the refugees—was lost by 29 votes to 8, with eight abstentions! The third Soviet amendment—namely, that quislings, traitors, and war criminals should not be regarded as refugees, and should be immediately leturned to the country of their crimes —was also lost by 26 votes to 10, witr six abstentions. The Assembly adjourned. League of Nations’ Assets The Assembly approved the report of the League of Nations Committee transferring the League’s assets to U.N.O. U.N.O. will take over the League's health section and the epidemological service, besides the opium section. A cpmmittee was established to negotiate further agreements relating to the Peace Palace at The Hague, which is required for the International Court of Justice.