HAGUE COURT RULING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26849, 13 August 1948, Page 5

HAGUE COURT RULING

VALIDITY OF 1921 DANUBE CONVENTION BRITISH MOVE INDICATED Rec. 9 p.m. BELGRADE, Aug. 12. The British delegation’s participation in the Danube navigation conference was entirely without prejudice to Britain’s rights and privileges under the 1921 Danubian Convention, Sir Charles Peake, the British delegate, told the conference to-day. British authorities said that Sir Charles’s remarks constituted a notice to the conference that Britain may withhold her approval of the pact and later would insist on a ruling, probably from The Hague International Court as to whether the 1921 Convention was

still valid. • In Washington to-day, the Secretary of State, Mr George Marshall, said that Russia’s proposals for Danube navigation would obstruct free trade on the river and that the United States would not agree to them. Mr shall added: “The Danube provides the route of commerce for many central and eastern European countries, but the Soviet and her satellites are trying to gain control of the river at the expense of the general restoration prosperity in Europe.” The Danube conference, where the Western Powers were in the minority, was “an excellent example” of the difficulties which the United States encountered in all its negotiations to settle Europe’s problems, said Mr Marshall. “but we must not compromise on great principles to achieve agreement for agreement’s sake.” Mr Andrei Vyshinsky (Russia) accused the French delegation of deliberate distortion of facts to cover a desire to alter the decision of the Council of Foreign Ministers on free navigation of the Danube. The Yugoslav chairman, Mr Bebler, frustrated an attempt to reply by France’s M. Thierry. Mr Bebler asked the conference to decide whether the debate should continue.

Mr Vyshinsky’s outburst followed a statement by M. Thierry that France could not accept Article I of the Soviet draft, because it was contrary to the formula accepted by the Council of Foreign Ministers at New York in 1946. covering freedom of Danube navigation.

Mr Vyshinsky said the formula in the Soviet draft was word for word identical with the Foreign Ministers’ formula. Earlier the conference rejected by the usual seven to three votes a United States amendment to the Soviet draft of Article I, and accepted by seven votes to one the Soviet draft of tHe article, France opposing and Britain and the United States abstaining from voting. The United States amendment sought to widen the draft by including a phrase on “ nondiscrimination against ships, regardless of their ownership or flag.”