UN INTERVENTIONS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 929, 31 May 1957, Page 11

UN INTERVENTIONS

Sir,-The ideals expressed in J. Malton Murray’s reply are indeed praiseworthy, but it is difficult to imagine their fulfilment as long as rational men are influenced so strongly by hatred of an ideology, The notion that Communist countries alone err in the use of violence, and alone are guilty of the list of evils attributed to them, is clearly untenable in the light of recent history. Forces sponsored by U.S.A. unseated a democratic Government in Guatemala. Britain meets force with force in Malaya and Cyprus, and initiated violence in Egypt. France continues to

wage war on the Algerian rebels. Has any Western Power renounced the use of violence? Without condoning Russia’s actions in Hungary, it must be remembered that Hungary was Hitler’s wartime ally, and one cannot imagine Western armies dealing any less forcibly with an uprising in an occupied country. When both Russia and the West are prepared to make concessions, an effective disarmament scheme will be implemented. The West has been equally obstructive in the past with repeated accusations of insincerity. If member nations extend the Charter of UN to grant it the powers of. world government, it seems certain peace can be preserved. We should campaign, then, for the evolution of UN, so that eventually the problems and grievances of all may be exposed and ameliorated. Meantime, there is no Western country so free of the sins Mr Murray mentions, that it can justly throw the first stone.

N. M.

ROE

(Tauranga).