The Wilmington Morning Star

BOGS DOWN BY PREAMBLE

Greek Delegate Interrupts Bulgarian Pact Oratory With Objection

REMARKS RULED OUT

Military Committee Involved In Long Argument Over Italian Treaty

By MEL MOST

PARIS, Aug. 19.-(P)-The first attempt of peace conference delegates to tackle substantive aspects of forthcoming treaties with Hitler satellites bogged down today in a new debate touched off by objection to the preamble of the proposed treaty with Bulgaria.

Discussion of actual treaty terms was halted when Greek delegate M. P. Pipinopolis told the political and territorial commission on the Bulgarian treaty that Greece objected to the preamble's declaration that Bulgaria "took an active part in the war against Germany."

May Be Issue

The debate indicated that the extent of Bulgaria's aid to the allies might become a major conference issue, since that Soviet-conquered nation has sought consideration as a co-belligerent.

In the background was the dispute over Greek claims to Bulgarian territory and Bulgaria's demand, supported by the Slavic states, for the return of western Thrace ceded to Greece after World War I. The conflicting claims had been referred to the peace conference by the Council of Foreign Ministers. without comment, to be settled after both sides were heard.

'The remarks contained in this preamble,' the Greek delegate protested, "can have a decisive influence in deciding the whole of the treaty. I have in mind particularly paragraph 3, which said Bulgaria 'took an active part in the war against Germany.' Bulgarian troops were active only when they fought along with Germany."

Pipinopolis said Bulgaria's part in the war against Germany "by no means could be qualified as active."

'Bulgaria switched sides at the last minute." he said. Bulgarian troops could have cut off the retreat of the German armies, but it

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was only in the latter part of August, 1944, that the Bulgarian troops began to move.

The Greek remarks were ruled out of order after the Australian delegate said discussion of the treaty, including the preamble, should not begin until all the proposed amendments had been received by the committee, and until it had been decided when the former enemy nations an other countries interested would be heard.

The British and Russian delegates said Bulgaria should be invited to expound her point of view before discussion of the treaty articles began. The committee adjourned after electing British delegate Gladwyn Jebb as secretary and agreeing that future procedure would be to take up the treaty article by article, ruling out any general discussion of the draft, in order to save time.

It was decided that the Greek remarks would not be entered in the minutes of today's session.

Committees for the Italian, Finnish and Hungarian treaties also met for deliberations today, but one after another they decided to await the secretariat's recommendations, promised for tomorrow, on how the viewpoints of the defeated countries involved would be heard.

It also was decided at the meetings of the economic commission for Italy and the political and territorial commissions for Hungary, Finland and Bulgaria to hold off discussions of the actual treaty drafts until after tomorrow night's deadline for submitting amendments to the secretariat.

All the commissions decided to bar general discussion of treaty drafts, since that discussion would come in plenary sessions, and to take up the point-by-point discussions immediately.

The military committee, also meeting today, became involved in a lengthy debate on whether to include immediate discussion of the Italian treaty as the order of the day, as proposed by the Russians.

Czechoslovakia put the proposal in the form of a motion, which was supported by the United States and opposed by Australia. It was carried, 18 to 2.

In the Finnish political and territorial committee a Russian proposal to be in immediate study of clauses without awaiting receipt of amendments, was rejected by a vote of 6 to 4.