Ministers Gather For Laos Talks

Press, Volume C, Issue 29511, 12 May 1961, Page 13

Ministers Gather For Laos Talks

(N.7.P.A -Reuter— Copyright)

GENEVA, May 11.

The British Foreign Secretary (Lord Home) will arrive in Geneva today to take part in the crucial 14-nation conference on Laos.

Soon after his arrival he is expected to meet the Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Gromyko) to plan the course of the conference. On his arrival yesterday, Mr Gromyko said Russia wanted to “stamp out the hotbed of war in South-East Asia.”

Russia and Britain are cochairmen of the Geneva conference that in 1954 negotiated the settlements for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, which ended the Indo-China war. They issued the invitations for the present conference, which is due to open tomorrow.

Another who arrived yesterday was the United States Secretary of State (Mr Rusk).

The conference will bring the United States face to face with China. Marshal Chen Yi, the Chinese Foreign Minister, is expected today.

Mr Gromyko said Russia looked forward to an agreement by which the Laotians themselves would be able to “resolve their affairs without outside pressure.” The United States State Department yesterday said that the United States had every intention of participating in the conference on Laos, but added that unless a cease-fire had been verified officially by Friday it doubted that the conference would open on time. The State Department spokesman. Mr Lincoln White, said he presumed that a de facto cease-fire in Laos, confirmed by the International Control Commission, would be enough for the United States to take part In the conference.

Mr White said, so far as the State Department knew, the meeting between the opposing factions in Laos on arranging a cease-fire had been inconclusive so far. He said that rebels at Ban Hin Heup had refused to deal with representatives of the commission

on May 9 because they said they had no instructions. “It remains to be seen whether this represents a policy decision on the part of the Communist side,” Mr White said.

The International Control Commission had representatives both at the rebel Pathet Lao headquarters and also at Vientiane, the seat of the Royal Laotian Government, he said.

“It is expected that they should shortly be making a report on whether a de facto cease-fire does exist,” he said. “It is of course impossible for us to anticipate what this report is going to be.” In London yesterday, the British Foreign Office spokesman told questioners that it was a definite condition for British attendance at the conference that the International Control Commission should report the existence of an existing cease-fire in Laos before it opened.