CAB129-78 — Page 232

ANNEX A

Page 232 STATEMENTS BY MR. BULGANIN AND MR. KHRUSHCHEV IN INDIA AND BURMA, AND UNITED KINGDOM OFFICIAL COMMENTS

NOTE. There are no authoritative texts of these statements. British and Soviet versions of each statement have therefore been included. In cases where these differ substantially, Indian or Burmese versions have also been included.

1. Speech by Mr. Bulganin to the Indian Parliament on 21st November at Delhi

British Version

Reuter's report as quoted in the Manchester Guardian, 22nd November.

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The Soviet Union repudiated war as a way of settling international problems. She was against military blocs and attempts to interfere in other countries' affairs; she stood for peaceful negotiations and the right of each country to develop as its people wished. .. As to the German problem, a settlement was primarily one for the Germans themselves; the task of the Great Powers was 'to help them to carry out unification of Germany along the road to peaceful and democratic development'.

Soviet Version

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Published in Soviet News in London on 24th November:

The foreign policy of the Soviet Union is a policy of peace and friendship between peoples, a policy of active and constant struggle for peace, against war and against any foreign interference in the domestic affairs of other countries (Applause). Following behests of our great teacher Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, we build our policy on the principles of respect for all nations on the basis of all peoples having the right to independent national development, in accordance with their own desires and interests. In our opinion the solution of the German problem is, above all, the concern of the German people themselves, and it is the task of the Great Powers to help them effect the unification of Germany along the road to peaceful and democratic development.

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UNITED KINGDOM COMMENT

On 22nd November the Foreign Office spokesman commented: —

Mr. Bulganin said that Soviet policy was based on non-interference in the internal affairs of other States. He also said that the solution of the German problem would be quite easy if the matter was left to the Germans themselves. The fact that there is a disunited Germany to-day is exclusively due to Soviet interference in the affairs of Germany, without which the East German régime would not have been set up nor continue to exist to-day. If Mr. Bulganin were sincere in believing that the problem of German reunification could be solved by leaving the settlement to the German people themselves, then we would be in entire agreement with him. What Her Majesty's Government cannot accept is that a body of men in Pankow, with no mandate from the people of Eastern Germany, should be allowed to veto the reunification of Germany. Soviet propaganda has sought to represent that the obstacle to German reunification is the adherence of the Federal Republic to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Western European Union. But Mr. Molotov has made it plain that, in the Soviet view, German reunification can only be achieved provided that what Mr. Macmillan called the 'odious system'in Eastern Germany was maintained and provided that an all-German Government was peace-loving; as is well known, the Soviet Government only considers Communist régimes to be fully entitled to be regarded as peace loving."

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In reply to a supplementary question the spokesman said, with reference to German reunification, that the point of view of Mr. Bulganin seemed thoroughly hypocritical.

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