DENOUNCED IN LORDS

Chronicle (Levin), 10 March 1949, Page 5

DENOUNCED IN LORDS

• (N.Z.P.A.-

Reuter .

r i . «Cii ' - Totalitarian Biplomacy Must Be Halted

, Copyrzght)

Reeeived Thursday, 10.10 a.m. . LONDON, March 0. Calling atfcention, in the House of Lords to the eomposition, me.thpds and purposes of the new totalitarian ddplomaey, Lord Vansittart said that twp events, both .of which were Soviet diplomatic att'empts to sever the last ties with the Western world, had prompted him to raise; the matter. ■ I The first was the trial of Cardi- ■ nal Mindszenty. Britain had sent; a note about it but had reeeived a] \rery impertinent reply. "I don't; see why we should stand any more; of it," he said, amid cheers. ! The seeond event was the trial of ; the Bulgarian pastors. Britain had; sent several notes but so far no; reply had been reeeived to several; of them. "That can be considered insufferable insolence," he said. "Ij m about sick of all this nonsense, ; I am going to carry the war into; the enemy's country. There- is going to be some hard hitting. So ±ong as we beileve that the f unc- . tions of diplomacy can be conducted by an underworld, and so long as we believe we can have good relations with people who are determined to reject them, we sha'll have both hands tied behind our backs. Our diplomacy should be developed to cope with an adversary who comes from behind the iron curtain." Lord Vansittart said that British dipmmats could not move a mile without secret police piling after chem. They were treated as pariahs, even at Russian receptions, and there was no reciprocity. Totalitarian diplomacy had now nothing to do with international relations. Its sole purpose was the destruction of democracy. Lord Vansittart continued: "In the old diplomacy we devoted our efforts to the maintenance of peace* but in these new hands diplomacy has beeome nothing but the engine of a cold war." He aheged that the Rumanian Legation in Paris was used to transmit funds and orders for subversion during the recent coal strikes and in a minor way the same sort of thing prevailed in Britain where the Rumanian Legation, like all satellite missions, had been reduced to a subsection of the Soviet Information Service. Lord Vansittart said that the Rumanian Legation in Britain numbered about 75. They were grouped and controlled in the Anglo-Rumanian Society whose principal members were Messrs. Gallacher, Piratm, Hewlett, Johnson, Pritt, Haldane, etc. They eould guess the purpose and use of that society. Some "very odd and notorious things" had been happening at the Gzechoslovak "Embassy. He alleged that it used diplomatic bags for smuggling in artifieial jewellery: and the bulk of the proceeds finaneed Communist propaganda in Britain and particularly a system for intelligence in factories. Lord Vansittart said that if there were any more abuses by the Hungarian representatives in Britain. the Hungarian Club in London should be closed down. It was nothing but a hotbedi of Communism. He did not want Britain to be in the position where security services might be swamped by a multipficity of conspirators.