Truman Scolds Senate for Failure to Ratify U.N. Genocide Pact

President Truman this week-end scolded the Senate for its “regrettable” failure to act affirmatively on his recommendation to ratify the United Nations Convention on Genocide and expressed the hope that “the United States, before too long, will join the growing number of countries which are determined to prevent and punish the hideous crime of genocide.”

The President’s comments were contained in a report transmitted to Congress on the role of the United States in the United Nations. The President announced that “the United States intends to continue expressing its concern over the systematic violations of human rights and the barbarous practices of mass extermination and deportation in Eastern Europe and to expose these fully to world indignation.”

(In Chicago, Sen. Robert A. Taft told a press conference that he was in favor of the Bricker resolution now pending in the Senate, the effect of which would be to prevent United States ratification of the U.N. conventions on genocide and human rights.)

The President’s report covered U.N. activities in the Middle East, including the efforts of the Palestine Conciliation Commission and the work of the armistice commission. It noted that Egypt had not complied with U.N. resolutions on the Suez Canal blockade against shipping for Israel.

The President declared that the presence of Palestine Arab refugees “constituted an important threat to the well being and stability of the entire area, as well as a significant element in the political differences between Israel and the neighboring Arab states.” For this reason, he said, “the United State has continued to consider a successful program to resolve the critical Palestine refugee problem as of great importance.”