Evening star., 1948-05-31
Russia and U. N. Membership

In its first decision since the founding
of the United Nations, the International
Court of Justice has voted against Russia
on the question of conditions governing
the admission of new members to the U. N.
But the ruling, which is simply advisory
and without any binding force, is far
from unanimous, nor is it based on the
usual East-West division Significantly
enough, the judges representing France,
Canada and Britain have sided with
Yugoslavia, Poland and the Soviet Union
in dissenting from the majority view
handed down by the judges representing
Ell Salvador, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, China,
Egypt, Norway, Belgium and the United
States
The ruling-requested some months ago
by the General Assembly-bears upon the
Soviet Unions frank policy OF blackballing
certain countries from admission into the
U. N. as long as the United States or any
other permanent member Of the Security
Council blackballs such Kremlin satellites
as Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Ro-
mania. Thus, although their applications
have had the support of the overwhelming
majority of the Council, Italy, Finland
Ireland, Portugal, etc, have been barred
repeatedly by Andrei Gromyko'S Veto
Quite candidly moreover, Mr. Gromyko has
acknowledged that nation like Italy is
entirely eligible for membership and ought
to be admitted, but he has turned thumbs
| down on it no fewer than three times, and
he has made clear that Russia will con-
tinue to do so until the rest of the
Council agrees to let in the satellites.
In its majority opinion, the 1nterna-
tional Court, hitting hard at this horse
trading policy as being contrary to the
spirit and letter of the Charter" has
ruled that each membership application is
supposed to be judged on its own merits
and that an applicant is eligible for ad-
mission If it is peace-loving state that
accepts the Charters obligations and is
able and willing to carry them out. In
other Words-in the case of Italy, for
example-the Soviet Union has no right
though 1t has the power, to use the veto
to penalize the Italians because the
satellites are refused admittance on the
ground that they do not accept or are
unwilling to honor the principles of the
Ol!IVCo NdIlollo. oCdtcQ dIlOGller way, nine
of the courts fifteen judges have voted
against the use of kind of blackmail
for political bargaining within the U. N.
The majority ruling, however, has been
promptly belittled by the Russians. Ac-
cordlng to Mr.. Gromyko, it will make no
difference in the Soviet position. That
position holds that the admission of U. N.
members is essentially not juridical mat
ter but political one-a matter in which
the Kremlin can be counted upon to
horse-trade in an effort to get into the
United Nations as many satellites or pro-
Moscow countries as possible.
In the circumstances, though the ma
jority opinion may carry moral weight
when the General Assembly considers it
at the Paris session in September, the
outlook seems as black as ever for the
admission OF genuinely eligible countries
like Italy. In the final analysis, of course,
this deadlock is simply one more express
sion of the overall deadlock between East
and West-a deadlock that has paralyzed
the United Nations in dealing with far
more important issues than membership.
Nor is there much that the u N. can do
about it. The simple fact is that there
will be no substantial change for the
better anywhere along the line until the
Kremlin itself changes for the better.