Renewed Vietnam Peace Effort By Pope

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30979, 8 February 1966, Page 22

Renewed Vietnam Peace Effort By Pope

(2V.Z.P.4. Reuter — VATICAN CITY, February 6. Pope Paul has sent messages to a group of neutral nations asking them to support his initiative for neutral mediation in Vietnam through the United Nations, usually reliable sources said in Vatican City last night.

A security black-out has been imposed in the Vatican on the contents of the messages and to which nations they have been sent.

One source said it was i being left to recipients to disclose what they thought fit. But it is known that within the last week messages were delivered by Holy See Diplomats to the Swiss and Austrian Governments.

Reliable reports said that the Pope was thinking in terms of a restricted commission based on Switzerland, and composed of such countries as Austria, Chile, Finland, Senegal, Sweden and Syria. None of these countries is involved in an international power bloc. Favourable replies are reported to have already been received from Switzerland, Austria and Syria. Favourable Reply Switzerland was asked if it would permit an international Vietnam conference to be

held on its territory. It replied that it would.

Geneva was the venue of the 1954 conference on IndoChina, which negotiated an armistice in Vietnam. Austria was asked to do what it could to support Pope Paul’s week-old proposal for neutral mediation.

The Government is reported to have replied that its Foreign Minister, Mr Bruno Kreisky, was already making contact with interested countries.

Though there is no official confirmation in Vatican City, the Holy See is also believed to be in close touch with the United Nations. The Holy See has been described as supporting the idea of a restricted commission of neutral nations, which would try to bring the contending parties to the conference table, rather than sketch out the terms of a settlement. India and the United Arab Republic might be candidates for membership of the commission.

The existing three-nation international commission for Vietnam (India, Canada, Poland) is regarded by Vati-

can circles as scarcely suitable for this task.

The deputy editor of the “Observatore Romano,” Professor Federico Alessandrini, wrote in a recent article that two of its members “are not neutral at all, but interested parties on one side or the other.” The Notes to neutral nations are the second wave of messages sent by the Pope in his Vietnam peace offensive. Last month he sent personal messages to President Johnson President Podgomy of the Soviet Union, Chairman Mao Tse Tung of China, and the Presidents of North and South Vietnam.