Andrei Vyshinsky's Speech before UN General Assembly 29th Plenary Session

12 February 1946 [London]

mr. vyshinsky (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) (Translation from the Russian): The Soviet delegation supports the draft resolution submitted to the General Assembly and prepared by the Third Committee, but it considers that the Assembly should insert in the resolution three additions.

The first addition raises a question of exceptional importance. If this question is not settled, it may nullify the whole resolution.

Point (c) (ii) of the Third Committee's draft resolution states that no refugees or displaced persons who have finally and definitely and, after receiving full knowledge of the facts, including adequate information from the Governments of their countries of origin, expressed valid objections to returning to their countries of origin, shall be compelled to return to their country of origin, provided they do not come under the provisions of point (d) below.⁴

The people who refuse to return to their country are not forced to do so. The man who is unwilling to serve his country is not obliged to return. But we should be logical, and having said that it depends upon the personal wish of the individual concerned whether he returns, we should give him the right to decide that question himself. He must not become the victim of fascist or semi-fascist propaganda directed against every principle that is obligatory for all of us. We cannot allow this fascist or semi-fascist propagandizing of refugees, which is not infrequently carried on in these camps and, indeed, in the most brazen manner. We cannot allow this propagandizing to turn these men into fascist agents and enemies working against the interests of the United Nations.

Today we read in the Daily Herald that the Third United States Army has frustrated the attempts of Yugoslav refugees in Germany to reconstruct a Royal Yugoslav army and to make another effort to plunge their country into a military adventure.⁵ We have information of similar facts regarding Polish adventurers who are exploiting the refugee camps for their own purposes. Such facts are possible precisely because there is carried on in the camps fascist propaganda, which is inseparably linked with fascist crimes and which serves to prepare for them.

We cannot allow propaganda of this type. We therefore proposed the insertion of the following paragraph in point (c):

"(iv) No propaganda shall be permitted in refugee and displaced persons camps against the interests of the United Nations Organization or its individual Members, nor propaganda against returning to their native countries."

The Committee did not accept this addition. We consider that this refusal to include our addition is the result of an obvious misunderstanding, as its opponents saw in it a proposal to restrict freedom of speech in the camps. But this is not so. What we refer to is not freedom of speech. It is the abuse of freedom of speech. It is an appeal to commit treason. It is an incitement to engage in hostile activities. Propaganda that involves treason must not be allowed. That is why we ask again that this amendment be included in the report.

I now come to the second addition which we have suggested. Among the administrative staff of the camps there are people who are highly suspect and obviously criminal. How can we allow Germans to be among the administrative staff, and even at the head of the refugee camps, whereas the administration dealing with these persons should be recruited from among those who fought against the Germans?

There are camps where Germans are taking part in the management. We cannot tolerate such a state of affairs. Therefore we propose the following addition to the draft resolution:

"(v) The administrative personnel of refugee and displaced persons camps should be comprised primarily of representatives of the States concerned, whose citizens are the refugees."

What can be more logical than this? If in a camp there are Russian, Yugoslav, Ukrainian, Byelorussian refugees, why not recruit the administrative personnel of these camps from the fellow-citizens of the refugees? This would be justified, because who better than their fellow-citizens can help these people, give them assistance, care for them and inform them of the real state of affairs in their countries? This would be natural and just. I fail to see why this addition should not be accepted.

Finally, I come to the third addition proposed by the Soviet delegation. You will see that it is connected with point (d), which states that no action taken as a result of this resolution shall be of such a character as to interfere in any way with the surrender and punishment of war criminals, quislings and traitors, in conformity with present or future international arrangements or agreements.

This, of course, is absolutely right and should be fully supported, but we think this paragraph does not go far enough. The whole resolution deals with assistance to refugees, but it must not be thought that the traitors and quislings mentioned in this paragraph may avail themselves of this assistance. It is necessary, therefore, to state clearly in the resolution that no help and no assistance shall be given to quislings, traitors and war criminals, that these gentlemen shall be handed over to their respective Governments for trial and punishment and that they shall be sent back to their countries to undergo hard labour, whereby they might make amends for their crimes, which inflicted so much suffering upon the peoples of the United Nations. We suggest therefore our third addition, which reads:

"Quislings, traitors, and war-criminals, as persons who discredited themselves by collaboration in any form with the enemies of the United Nations, should not be regarded as refugees who are entitled to the protection of the United Nations. Quislings, traitors and war criminals who are still hiding themselves under the guise of refugees shall be returned to their countries immediately."

We maintain that this addition would be justified. These criminals, these traitors are not refugees. Those who still pass themselves off as refugees, should be sent back forthwith to their respective countries for trial and for the just appeasement of the public conscience, which has been deeply stirred by the fascist aggression perpetrated with the participation of these criminals. We think, therefore, that the additions proposed by the Soviet delegation should be included in the report, especially as this paragraph is merely the continuation of the idea by which the authors of point (c) were guided, and shows how to act and how to deal with these traitors. On behalf of the Soviet delegation, I press for the additions proposed by us.

Tsptr ORGAUN, MwelC

When Andrei Vyshinsky, the Soviet delegation's most skillful debater, made it clear that he was going to challenge the Third Committee's report in the General Assembly, the American delegation was caught off guard. "The question threw our delegation into a dither," ER reported in her autobiography. "There was a hurried and rather uncomfortable consultation among the male members and when the huddle broke up John Foster Dulles approached me rather uncertainly. 'Mrs. Roosevelt,' he began lamely, 'the United States must speak in the debate. Since you are the one who has carried on the controversy in the committee, do you think you could say a few words in the Assembly? Nobody else is really familiar with the subject.'" ER discussed what she was going to say with Durward Sandifer, her State Department advisor for the Third Committee, but spoke extemporaneously. Sandifer later called it "the most important speech ever given by an American delegate without a prepared text." The debate did not end on February 12 despite the defeat of the amendments proposed by Vyshinsky, however. The Russians and Yugoslavs continued to press their position in the committee appointed by ECOSOC and ER would again confront them on the same issues in the fall of 1946 during the debates in the Third Committee and General Assembly on the constitution of the International Refugee Organization.⁶