POTSDAM TALKS

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24632, 31 July 1945, Page 5

POTSDAM TALKS

POSSIBLE CONCLUSION THIS WEEK <‘NO INKLING OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED” (N Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, July 29. ‘There are indications that the Big Three conference may end on Tuesday or Wednesday, and that the drafting of the momentous proclamation, already begun, has continued,” says Reuter’s correspondent at Potsdam. “The same secrecy shrouds Mr Att-* lee and Mr Bevin as screened Mr Churchill and Mr Eden. The leaders of the three nations are now believed to have met 12 times, but not an inkling of what has happened at the discussions, or even what questions have been debated, has come from the conference.’’' The Associated Press correspondent says; "With the end of the conference in sight, interest is being intensified in the final communique in which be revealed the framework for future collaboration. There are no authoritative grounds for anticipating that the Far Eastern war will be mentioned specifically, and decisions affecting military affairs will almost certainly be kept from the public. “There is so far no ripple of official reaction to Dr, Evatt’s announcement that Australia is un&ble to subscribe to the Potsdam ultimatum because it is too lenient, and that Australia was not consulted. It is believed inevitable that the Australian dissent from the tripartite efforts to induce Japanese war lords to come to terms will soon be drowned in the din of protests throughout Europe which will follow the announcement of the Big Three's decisions. There arc two sides to every question, and whatever Mr Attlee, Mr Truman, and Mr Stalin decide, the Josefs will set up a storm of protest." * President Truman, interviewed in Berlin, refused to make any comment on the Big Three conference, but he expressed his satisfaction with what he had seen in Europe. Asked how long he thought the Japanese war would last, in view of the recent proclamation calling on the Japanese to surrender, he said that if the Japanese ignored the offer no man was smart enough to say how long the war would last. He added that, he had done everything in his power to give the Japanese the chance of surrendering. The Luxemburg radio reports that a Polish delegation has arrived at Potsdam for a conference.