Harmony in Germany The Most Vital Issue for Success of London Talks

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26628, 26 November 1947, Page 5

Harmony in Germany The Most Vital Issue for Success of London Talks

Rec. 9 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 25. The four Foreign Ministers, Mr Ernest Bevin, Mr George Marshall, Mr Vyacheslav Molotov and M. Georges Bidault, will open their conference on Germany and Austria this afternoon—the conference which Mr Bevin has called “ probably the most vital in the world’s history,” and “ almost the last chance.”

Everyone agrees, says the diplomatic correspondent of The Times, that the next two or three weeks are almost bound to show whether Germany can be run in unison at last or whether the present split will be widened and hardened, deepening the divisions in Europe itself. Even if the conference were to end indecisively with the hopes that the Ministers might meet again to try later, such indecision would really mean a decision in favour of disunity, for neither the Soviet Union nor the Western Powers could let events in their zones stand still. Their organisation as selfsupporting units would have to continue.

The Ministers will meet at Lancaster House, adjoining St. James’s Palace. It is here that the Council of Foreign Ministers held its first and unluckiest meeting two years ago, when Mr Molotov let it break down rather than allow France and China (then an active member of the Council) to take part in the Balkan discussion.

At the moment it must be said that few people dare prophesy that the meeting now opening will fare much better, and there can be no

means of telling how long it will

The Americans appear to be the most impatient, and some of them believe that a fortnight will be more than sufficient to discover whether any agreement is possible. Mr Bevin and M. Bidault are less precise, but certainly, The Times adds, no one wishes the conference to drag on if the old irguments are only repeated. When the Foreign Ministers meet :hey will be faced with the same .'undamental differences as divided them in Moscow, the chief being the inability to persuade Russia to join 'the other three Powers in running Germany as “an economic whole,” says the diplomatic correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. The vital issues are: First, how long are Britain and the United States prepared to continue to press Russia to come in with them and France so as to administer Germany: and, secondly, is there any chance of Russia’s agreeing‘to do so in view of her admitted fiat hostility to the Marshal plan? If it is found that Mr Molotov is not prepared to make any real concessions the conference is bound to collapse, the correspondent says. Britain and the United States will then have to face the responsibilities arising therefrom. These may involve the political as well as the economic fusion of the British, American and French zones, and the eventual establishment of a strong, responsible Western German Government. “I go into this conference," Mr Ernest Bevin has said, “fully conscious of the fact that if we fail to get agreement it will be a terrible responsibility.” ' '• In the lamentable event of failure, Che' next few weeks will show on whose shoulders the responsibility would lie, the correspondent adds.

GERMAN SIGNATORY

BRITAIN AND RUSSIA AGREE Rec. 11 p.m. MOSCOW, Nov. 25. A Tass message from London, giving details of the disagreements between the Foreign Ministers’ deputies who have been preparing for to-day’s Foreign Ministers’ conference, says Britain and Russia were agreed that the eventual German peace treaty should be- signed by a representative of the German Government, but the United States and France opposed this and proposed instead that Germany should only be obliged to adopt a constitution containing clauses that would compel Germany to fulfil the peace treaty. The message said there was also disagreement over which States should be consulted by the Big Four on the German treaty. The Soviet delegation supported the viewpoint unanimously adopted at the Foreign Ministers’ New York session—namely, that in addition to the five Great Powers, Russia Britain, the United Statls, France and China, Allied States neighbouring on Germany and other Allied States that participated with armed forces in the common struggle against Germany should also take part in these consultations. , „ The Soviet delegation proposed the same list of countries for participation in the peace conference on Germany. The American delegation proposed that all States which declared war on Germany should be consulted and should participate in the peace conferTh'e message, added that acceptance of this proposal would mean that side by side with States that took part with armed forces in the struggle against Germany, States which collaborated with Hitler and Germany, and which only formally declared war on her a few weeks before she capitulated, would participate in the peace conference on an equal footing.