U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24986, 21 September 1946, Page 7

U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

President Talks To Mr Byrnes WORK AT PEACE CONFERENCE (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK, Sept. 19. Mr Truman; in an exchange of teletype messages with the United States Secretary of State (Mr James Byrnes) sought to reassure Mr Byrnes that there was no intention to undo or hamper his work at the Paris Conference or in the field of foreign policy generally, says the Paris correspondent of the “New York Times.” Mr Truman and Mr Byrnes talked for 20 minutes to-day by teletype between Washington and Paris. This was Mr Byrnes’s first direct communication with the President since the much discussed speech by the Secretary of Commerce (Mr Henry Wallace) on September 12. The correspondent said that the President’s messages were very personal and that he virtually guaranteed to Mr Byrnes that nothing was changed between them. Although these assurances may have soothed Mr Byrnes’s feelings somewhat, no private exchange of explanations or guarantees could meet the situation created in Paris by Mr Wallace’s speech. It is agreed in New York that Mr Truman must make a strong public declaration removing the ambiguity that arose from the reported arrangement for silence by Mr Wallace until after the Paris Conference. The reports of an arrangement have been officially described as “absolutely untrue.” The chairman of the New York Communist Party (Mr William Foster) addressing a rally at Madison Square Garden, expressed the view that Mr Wallace was correct in pointing with alarm to the present American foreign policy. The danger of war was acute because the Truman administration had abandoned Mr Roosevelt’s policy of. Big Three collaboration and surrendered to Wall Street imperialists, he said.