BRITISH ATTITUDE TO ANGLO-SOVIET PACT

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5307, 21 January 1947, Page 5

BRITISH ATTITUDE TO ANGLO-SOVIET PACT

LONDON, Jan 20. The British Foveign Office announces that the British, Ambassador in Moscow, Sir Maurice Peterson. has heen instructed to inform Generalissimo Stalin that the sugge?tio-n which a Pravda article elaborated most misleadingly, that the United Nations might be regarded in London tis superseding the Anglo-Russian Alliance, surprised the British Government. The fact that both Governments wished the United Nation^ to buttress international security did not moa 11 that the treaty had lapsed merely because the United Natio-ns was born.

No security agreements that could possibly be considered to justify the treaty's supersession had yet been adopted under article 43 of tlie Charter. The intention of Mr Ernest Bevin's broadcast on December 22, 1946, was to show that Britain had not aligned her foreign policy against Russia but favoured co-operation among all the United Nations, and especially with Russia and the United States. Mr. Bevin actually answered allegations that British relations with R.ussia were not as close as they should be. Reuter's diplomaic correspondent says it is learned authoritatively that Sir Maurice Peterson yesterday handed to the Soviet Government the British statement on the Pravda article and a eopy of Mr. Bevin's broadcast.