EXPLANATION OF BEVIN SPEECH

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5312, 27 January 1947, Page 5

EXPLANATION OF BEVIN SPEECH

(Press Assn.-

•REiJECTED IN MOSCOW FRIENDLY OVERTURES NOT UNDERSTOOD

-Rec. 9.80 p.m.)

LONDON, Jan. 25. The report from Moscow by, Reuter's correspondent that the newspaper Pravda rejected the official British reply to its allegation that Mr. Bevin, in his broadcast on December 22, denounced the British - Soviet ti eaty of allianee, has caused surprise in London. "This report has particularly disturbed the Labour party organ, the Daily Herald, which quotes Mr. Bevin's broadcast; the article in. Pravda by an anonymous v/riter saying that Mr. Bevin's remarks must be taken as a denunciatixxn of the treaty, the British Government's Note, and also the full text of the British-Soviet treaty. "Most people here," says the Daily Herald, "will think it a silly quarrel," and he explains the reasons for the lengthy quotations as a token of the goodwill of the British people towards the Russian people.

From Moscow comes the comment of The Times correspondent suggesting that too much attention should not be paid to the incident.As neither Pravda's latest comments nor the crigirial article, he says, advanced any charges that the British Government's action was contrary to the terms of the allianee, and as it is •from the Soviet side that insistence 011 the existenee of the treaty has come, the incident, which now appears tt> be closed, has been interpreted by ohservers in Moscow in a far from pessimistic light. Respect for Allianee "These ohservers," the correspondent proceeds, "note with interest that in this somewhat roundabout way the Soviet Press has heen able to present to- the public a firm British declaration of its respect for the allianee. The fact that a Soviet newspaper considered it worth while to raise the question at all seems to suggest that here too, the allianee is regarded with no little respect."

Those to whoiu this possibly rather rosy view of the matter appears reasonable consider that their grounds for such an interpretation are strengthened hy the temperate cordiality of the tone of M. Stalin's replies to questious asked hy Mr. Elli itt Roosevelt at their meeting on Christmas Eve. "Puhlic opinion readily welcomed M. Stalin's words as another milestone on the way to the goal for international co-operation, for which there is a stronger yearning here than is perhaps always fully realised abroad." "Extremely Odd" The Manchester Guardian, in a leading article says the Pravda affair is extremely odd. ' It would be . thought that Mr. Bevin would be the person most likely to know whether or not he renounced the treaty. Mr. Bevin says he did not. The Pravda said he did. "It seems a little unfair," the newspaper adds, "if Mr. Bevin's efforts to be friendly are to he damned hy a verbal quibble." It is reported that Mr. Bevin is expected to leave London for Moscow on March 7 to attend the Foreign Ministers' conference, which is to begin on March 10.