SOVIET CHALLENGED TO FILE FORMAL COMPLAINT AGAINST ATLANTIC PACT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27057, 16 April 1949, Page 7

SOVIET CHALLENGED TO FILE FORMAL COMPLAINT AGAINST ATLANTIC PACT

New Zealand Press Association—Copyright Rec. 10 p.m. NEW YORK, Apl. 14. Mr Hector McNeil (Britain) to-day challenged Mr Andrei Gromyko (Russia) to file a formal complaint in the United Nations against the North Atlantic Pact so that the General Assembly could have a showdown vote on it. Mr McNeil, speaking in the Assembly during the debate on the proposals to restrict the veto in the Security Council,' dealt point by point with allegations Mr Gromyko made yesterday against the pact. Mr McNeil said Mr Gromyko himself knew the pact did not provide for military alliances for aggression. “ Who for a moment believes Norway has any aggressive design against the Soviet Union,” he said. Mr McNeil accused Mr Gromyko of slandering the British Government. He said that so far as Britain was concerned the Anglo-Soviet Treaty was still in effect. The Foreign Minister, Mr Ernest Bevin, had made continuous efforts to have it extended. “ Not only do we not seek escape from the treaty but we are passionately anxious that the Soviet Union should feel herself bound by it,” he said. He added that nothing in the United Nations Charter conflicted with the intention of the signatories of the North Atlantic Pact. It was so patently defensive in character that only those who contemplated aggression had any reason to oppose it.

Referring to Mr Gromyko’s 'statement that none of the pact signatories had suffered armed attack from Russia, Mr McNeil commented: “ That is about the only kind of attack we have not suffered.” Mr McNeil said Mr Gromyko claimed to speak for the common man, but he and the other Russian delegates lived in isolation at a Long Island estate instead of mixing with the people as the other delegates did. “I and others believe Mr Gromyko and his coUeagues have long been out of touch with the common people. I appeal to Mr Gromyko to go to a delicatessen, bus, or subway and listen to what the people have to say atput the situation from which the pact was born.” /

Answering Mr Gromyko’s assertions that the Russian use of the veto had always been in the interests of the people of the world, Mr McNeil said: ‘‘Mr Gromyko trifles with our time and insults our intelligence. His assertion is the most absurd generalisation ever offered the Assembly.” Mr McNeil said the United Nations would grow in strength and become more effective when Russia acknowledged with all the ojther Great Powers that they were not the possessors of all wisdom or all power. After an exhaustive debate, the General Assembly ruled that the Great Powers should confine their use of the veto to certain items of paramount importance.