Danube Commission

At a meeting of the Danube Commission in December 1951, a Soviet proposal that only states whose vessels were directly involved in an accident on the Danube should take part in its investigation was approved. Yugoslavia objected to the proposal as a violation of the sovereign rights of the riparian states which, Yugoslavia felt, should investigate any accident which occurred in its territory. At a further meeting of the commission at Galatz, Rumania, in July 1952, a commission was set up to examine a Yugoslav proposal toamend the rules of procedure and the Statute. A Yugoslav motion that this commission report to the next session of the commission in December 1952, was rejected; no date was set for further action on the Yugoslav resolution. The Yugoslav delegate (Djurich) maintained that, at present, the commission was not independent but was controlled by the Soviet Union; the purpose of his government's resolution, he continued, would be to make the organization more representative.