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After spending two hours in dealing with Eastern Bloc arguments questioning the competency of the Commission to consider the question, a bare half-hour sufficed for a reply on its substance. The reply as follows, obviously prepared and agreed in advance by the Four Powers, was adopted : "In reply to the letter, dated 17th September, from the Chairman of the Political and Territorial Commission for Bulgaria, the Military Commission considers that any increase or decrease of territory will probably improve or weaken the possibilities for local defence, but strategic security, as mentioned in the annex to your letter, includes political, economic, and ethnic problems, which are not within the province of this Commission." Little attempt had been made in Commission to discuss the Greek proposal and, in fact, the question of a demilitarized zone was not even raised. It was only too clear that the Powers were reluctant to have this delicate frontier question reopened, and even more to pronounce judgment on it. In the event, the Greek proposal never received the consideration it well merited. The New Zealand delegation, feeling that scant justice had been accorded the Greek proposal, was unable to agree to the reply of the Military Commission proposed by the United States, and abstained from voting. HUNGARY The Commission held three meetings to consider the Military Articles of the draft peace treaty with Hungary. It heard the representatives of Hungary and considered their observations. All the articles with the exception of two (Articles 13 and 14), together with the two annexes, were adopted after discussion, unanimously and without change. Article 13 was amended in accordance with a Belgian amendment (C.P. (Gen)., Doc- IC4) proposing the prohibition of any atomic weapons, an amendment which had been accepted unanimously for insertion in related articles of the draft treaties with Italy, Roumania, and Bulgaria. In this article, too, a resolution similar in form to that agreed for Article 14 of the Roumanian treaty and Article 12 of the Bulgarian treaty was adopted unanimously, the Eastern Bloc also maintaining their previous attitude and reservation in regard to the unanimity of the vote. Article 14 was redrafted in the French language text to bring the three official texts into agreement. The Czechoslovak delegation had proposed an amendment (C.P., Gen. Doc. IQ7) for the insertion of a new article directed to prohibiting the construction of permanent
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