WESTERN POWERS’ STAND ON DANUBE QUESTION

Grey River Argus, 6 August 1948, Page 5

WESTERN POWERS’ STAND ON DANUBE QUESTION

(Rec. 9.20) , LONDON, Aug. 5. M. Vishinsky (Soviet) at the Danube River Conference at Belgrade yesterday, supported his re fusal to admit any outside powers to the control of the river by citing' the cases of the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal. He said: “The principle of equal economic opportunity for all has not been applied to international waterways. ’ ’

According’ to the Daily Telegraph’s corresponjdent at Belgrade, he said he could not see why the Danube should be treated differently. Therefore, he asked the conference to accept his-proposals, which would exclude all non-Danubian States, but would provide for use of the river by commercial shipping of all* States on an equal footing. The Yugoslav delegate, M. Bebler, was the first to speak in support of the Russian proposals. He said he accepted them “fully and unreservedly.”

BELGRADE, Aug. 4. The United States Ambassador, Mr Cavendish Cannon, will make a demand at the Danube conference for free . navigation for all. Britain and France are expected to fight vigorously at the conference for the repayment of the millions of pounds they have invested in the Danube River Commission which the Russians propose to abolish. The Soviet draft for the new convention includes a clause cancelling these debts. M. Vyshinsky presented to the conference a Soviet plan to give Eastern Europe’s Communist-dominated States exclusive control of the Danube, but at the same time creating for each participating country immediate control of the waters on its own border. M. Vyshinsky said the plan would do away with the privileged position the 1921 convention gave the non-Danubian States.