NEWS OF THE WEEK
HINGS have now got to such a pitch at Lake Success that the T
imposition of a veto by Russia (with Poland usually dancing attendance) is becoming the rule rather than the exception. The latest cases of this concern Greece and the admission of new members. As to the new members, Russia objects to Eire, Portugal and Trans- jordan on various specious pleas, the real reason clearly being the assumption that all three (even Eire) are of the British way of thought ; and the British member of the Security Council had opposed the admission of Russia's protégés, Albania and Outer Mongolia. On the face of it the Security Council's recommendation to the Assembly on the admission of new members would seem to be a procedural question, requiring only the support of any seven members, and therefore not open to veto by a permanent member, but that practice has apparently not been followed. The use of the veto on the Greek question is much more serious. The situation on that country's northern frontiers is grave in the extreme, and the United Nations' own commission of inquiry, as well as various other sources of information, have proved incontestably that the Greek rebels are being actively supported from Bulgaria, Albania and Yugoslavia. On Tuesday the United States member of the Security Council proposed a resolution censuring the Governments of those three countries and suggesting that the United Nations Commission now in the Balkans should remain there till permanent observers could be sent out. Nine of the eleven members of the Council voted for the resolution ; Russia and Poland voted against ; the resolution was therefore lost. This kind of division, which recurs time after time, cannot continue, for Russia is thereby reducing the United Nations to a nullity. The General Assembly must probe the whole situation next month from top to bottom.
