N.Z. DELEGATE TO U.N.O. OPPOSED TO MEDIATION IN KOREA

Wanganui Chronicle, 21 July 1950, Page 5

N.Z. DELEGATE TO U.N.O. OPPOSED TO MEDIATION IN KOREA

NEW YORK, July 18.—Sir Carl Berendsen, New Zealand's chief delegate to the United Nations, declared himself against any mediation in the Korean war until the North Korean forces retired behind the 38th parallel

interviewed in a radio programme over a major American network by the United Nations correspondents’ association, he said: “If the Soviet Union is responsible, as of course the Soviet Union is, for this gross breach of the United Nations Charter and International morality, then I can see no reason whatsoever, morally or logically, why we should attempt to bribe them off. I would not agree to one single step unless and until the North Korean forces retire behind the 38th parallel. “You are not going to stop war by words. You cannot stop murders by mouth. Where you find people taking other people by force, there is only one way to handle that. It is to resist by force,” said Sir Carl

IF HE HAD TO CHOOSE Asked whether he would be happy if the Soviet bloc never returned to the United Nations, Sir Carl said: “If I had to choose, and perhaps I havo now, between an organisation to preserve the peace of the world which is universal, but which will not work because of a veto on the one hand and on the other an organisation to preserve the peace of the world which is not universal, but will work without the veto, then I would most certainly choose the latter"

He said he was not yet in a position to answer whether New Zealand would respond to Mr Trygve Lie,* appeal to member nations to send troops to Korea. Citing training difficulties and the problems of co-ordin-ation of various weapons, Sir Carl said: "All those things have to be thought out and carefully thought out before any decision can be taken as to what can be done.”

Sir Carl, in reply to another question, said he was convinced that peace in this century was not possible unless “the Soviet dynamic” was halted. He added: "I have now most reluctantly and most sadly come to the conclusion that on the whole war is probable rather than possible.”