CONFERENCE IN PARIS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 28, 12 November 1949, Page 5

CONFERENCE IN PARIS

THREE-POINT AGREEMENT

WEST GERMAN POSITION

(N.Z.P. A.—Copyright)

(Rec. 10.20 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 11

The West German Government told the Foreign Ministers of Britain, France and the United States, at their Paris conference, that it would co-operate with any '* international or allied organisation, which might be set up to control Germany’s war potential, says Reuter’s Bonn correspondent.

The West German Government sug l gested the formation of a negotiating body of Allied and German representatives to discuss German co-operation with the Allied Security Board, German participation in the international Ruhr authority, and investment of foreign capital in German heavy industry. The Associated Press Paris correspondent says that the Foreign Ministers received an assurance from Mr Acheson that the American policy was based on defence of the border between the Western and Soviet Zones of Germany. The West German Government is meeting at Bonn to-day to receive instructions from the Allied High Commissioner, following the Big Three talks. Mr Acheson, who arived in Frankfurt from Paris to-day on a'four-day visit to Germany, said the world would have to wait for weeks, possibly for months, before the decisions of the Paris conference were known. However, according to the United Press Paris correspondent,, it is known that the Foreign Ministers reached general agreement on three principal points: Firstly, drastic curtailment of the dismantling programme, to allow Germany to retain some of the plants previously earmarked for reparations; secondly,' an earlf declaration ending the state of \yar with Germany—a formality which would allow the Bonn Government to send to foreign Governments; and, thirdly, early admission of Western Germany and the Saar as associate members of the Council of Europe.