PARIS CONFERENCE DIFFICULTIES

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24959, 21 August 1946, Page 7

PARIS CONFERENCE DIFFICULTIES

Anxious British Comment MOLOTOV’S ESTIMATE OF DURATION (Special Correspondent NZ.PA.) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, August 18. British press reports and comment on the Paris Con* ference emphasise the rift between the Western Powers and Russia, and the lack of progress towards collaboration. The diplomatic correspondent of the “Glasgow Herald’’ says: “Mr Molotov’s suggestions that the Paris deliberations might last until December must have chilled the spines of dele* gates, and there is much speculation on the reason for his estimate. If there is expedition as well as goodwill, so long a period is fantastic. If there is neither—one does not absolutely depend on the other—December, though a modest limit to set, is so remote that not a few delegates would prefer au open rupture and separate treaties. “They realise, of course, the risks that rupture involves, but as the worst sequel—war—is dependent on armaments and alliances, and as neither are in any state to permit anyone to start a war, they feel that the risks are worth taking. “Besides, the general feeling is that an open rupture might clear the air and make necessary a reunion on a more profitable and sounder basis.

“It is extraordinary,” continues the correspondent, “to note the change that has come over diplomatic and political opinion in the last year. While there is still no agreement on the aims of Russian policy, there is now general agreement that these aims, supported by the ’Slav bloc,* are incompatible with a world settlement on Atlantic Charter principles and on Western ideals.

“The picture of two kinds of democracy is being ever more quietly dropped, and the plain fact that there are two doctrines and two blocs of States in existence and in conflict i* becoming more and more admitted as the chief fact and factor in international politics. “The peace treaties as such fade into the background, and what are pushed forward are those issues where stiU further open conflict can be expected.*

“Charges and Counter-Charges” The “Manchester Guardian” say«! “So far the conference has produced little but charges, replies to chargea, and counter-charges. Of what usea to be considered the function of a conference—meetings between statesmen, and attempts to work out agreements based on what common ground could be found—there has been little sign. “There seems to have bdfcn Pistoni*h» ingly few of those private conversations and discussions which are usually the most fruitful part of any international gathering. Those delegations which most need to get together have so far only manoeuvred against one another from afar.

“In the conference itself a pseudoparliamentary procedure has been adopted without that minimum of common purpose which is necessary to make a parliament work.

“Alarm at the prospects of a Europe divided as it has never been before (except in the middle of the Great War) is felt in some of the lesser and more independent delegations of the Eastern bloc, no less than in those at the Western Powers.”

“The atmosphere of the conference has been steadily deteriorating in the last three weeks,” says a correspondent of the Kemsley group of newspapers. “There is now a tension about the proceedings that makes one wonder whether anything constructive will ever emerge from them. “The division between the groups has become more pronounced and more challenging, and the language plainly more unrestrained. Tempers are becoming frayed, and the outburst by Mr W. J. Jordan showed signs of loss of control, although it was a natural manifestation of impatience and has helped to clear the air. In any case, it was less serious than the cold, deliberate language of Mr James Byrnes in defending himself against misrepresentation ana the anti-Ameri-can whispering campaign carried on behind the scenes.” “Rift Seems Widened” “The Times” says: “Three weeks of speech making and angling for position seem only to have widened and hardened the rift between the Soviet groups and the rest. Even many delegates who habitually vote with one side or another are uneasily asking what the outcome will be and whether there is any remedy. “At its present stage the conference is certainly not the Allied consultative body that was planned—a body to pass opinion on the five draft treaties prepared by the Big Four. It is a jousting yard between East and West, and the Soviet delegations have shown that they count the former enemy States of eastern Europe among their company and will guard them against Western demands for free access and trade.

The divisions, in fact, lie between the Allies rather than between the Allies and the former enemy States.'* “The Times” “Perhaps when the commissions begin their worK and the Big Four stand in defence of their agreed clauses, the conference wifi take on a healthier shape, but after the bitter speeches exchanged during the last week many delegates wish that the four Foreign Ministers could meet now to reassure one another that they do intend to support those clauses.”

Lack of Informal Meetings The “Daily Herald’’ says: “There to no escaping the fact that so far this has not been a conference. It has been almost entirely a debate between two conflicting parties. The public sessions are debates, and there have beea none of those informal meetings in which, among friends, difficulties can be smoothed away. Mr Byrnes and Mr Molotov talked with each other just once—on July 30. Mr Bevin and Mr Molotov have not yet met There is no collaboration. Tnere is any amount of oublic altercation.”

The “Daily Telegraph” says: “There is a growing feeling that something must be done to expedite the work of the conference. Impatience with the progress is not entirely justified. *nie circumstances of the plenary sessions, of the Procedure Committee, and of the commissions, make speed impossible. They are large public gatherings. There is no ‘round-table* intimacy. “How long the conference will last and whether it will be postponed to enable the delegates to attend the United Nations General Assembly on September 23 is being debated. One view is that both might go on simultaneously.”