MOLOTOV CHARGED WITH OBSTRUCTION

Chronicle (Levin), 8 July 1946, Page 5

MOLOTOV CHARGED WITH OBSTRUCTION

foreign ministers' talks * Received Sundav, 8 p.m. LONDON, July 7. The Foreign Ministers, after nearly (ive hours ' discussion, again failed to agree on the form of invitations for the Peaee Conference, says Reuter's Paris correspondeut. There is also continued j stalemate over the cpiestion whether i China should be regarded as one of the J sponsoring Powers. The JMinisters will | meet again tomorrow. | Mr. Bevin, during the discussion, | said the .Ministers agreed to call a ! Peaee Conference without any condi- | tions but Mr. Molotov now virtually j was going back on his agreenient. hlr. Molotov is reported to have refused i consent to the issuing of invitations 1 until the rules of procedure are laid j down by the Big Four. IMr. Byrnes I and .M r. Bevin heatedly insisted that | they had no power to draw up rules for ! the conference. Mr. Byrnes said no I selfrespecting representative to any i international conference could aecept I sucli dictation. He declared he would ' not even discuss rules of procedure ! unless it were cleafly understood such | rules would merely be suggestions in no way binding 011 either the Peaee Con- { ference or the United States Govem- ' inPTir.

Agencv correspondents describe the debate as bitter and lieated. The dispute arose when Mr. yiolotov criticised a snggestion by M. Bidault for the formation of n general commission, uoinprising the heads of the 21 delegations to the Peaee Conference, to prepare work for the plenary conference. Mr. Molotov said this would mean that the Peaee Conference would become merely "a rubber stamping maehine. " Reuter's corresj)ondent says Mr. Bevin directly challenged Mr. Molotov with using obstructionist tactics. He said Mr. Molotov, after agreeing to hold the conference, was now devising plans to veto it unless the other Ministers agreed with Russia 011 all the rules of procedure. Mr. Bevin pointed out that the other Ministers agreed to the Itulian reparations 011 the understanding that Mr. Molotov agreed to go ahead with the Peaee Conference. "We kept our bargain but you seem to be going back 011 yours and it is better that the world should know it," he told Mr. IMolotov. The pledge given the Dominion Ministers during their London meetings, was one reason Mr. Bevin gave Mr. Molotov for ref using to impose a ready made procedure on the nations attending the Peaee Conference, says the Exchange Telegraph 's i'aris correspondeut. Mr. Bevin said the Dominion .Ministers had asked him whether the conference would be responsible for its own procedure and he had assured them it wnn I rl

i Mr. Bevin said: "I gave my word I to the House of Commons and Dorninion .Ministers and 1 am not going back on it. " .Tlie *^c6fFe$j)6ndeM; ''tariV that Molofoy %; repetition ■•of * the wofds "rubber sfamp". finallv had delegates bursting into laughter each tirne he used the phrase and he used it more than two dozen times. The Assoeiated Press correspondeut reports that Mr. Bevin and Mr. Byrnes argued that a previous insistence on j rules of procedure might indeed be j deseribed as turnmg the conference into j a rubber stamp but letting the conference deeide its own rules was anything but that. Mr. IMolotov replied that the 1 conference, if left alone, would turn itself into a rubber stamp.