RECONSTRUCTION IN EUROPE

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25444, 16 March 1948, Page 5

RECONSTRUCTION IN EUROPE

16-Nation Conference In Paris German representation TO BE CONSIDERED

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p m.) LONDON, March 15. The conference of the 16 Marshall Plan nations in Europe, (Rich will open to-day in Paris, win devote the first two days primarily to policy statements. The next two or three days’ work (ill be at a high official level, when the conference will set up frame the terms of reference for a working party, which rill draft the constitution for a continuing organisation of the participating Powers.

The working party also will draw up a multilateral agreement pledging continued economic co-operation. It is expected that the party’s work will take three or four weeks. The conference will discuss the extent and method of german representation at future meetings. The diplomatic correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” ays that the French delegation at the cohference, after consultation with Britain, is to suggest that the proposed permanent organisation to supervise economic recovery in Western Europe shall fix each year an annual economic programme Rased on the national programmes of the participating countries.

! It will also be proposed that this 16-nation organisation i shall undertake to “repudiate all autarchic measures, facilitate trade between themselves, practise close co-operation, and pro•ressively abandon export restrictions between themselves.”

Beuter’s correspondent in Paris says that it is reliably learned that the graft report to be submitted to the ccsierence says that Europe’s economic situation continues to degenerate because of the progressive expiation of the gold and hard currency resources of most European countries, which have often been

obliged to make big -reductions or even suppress their purchases of rqw materials from the Western HemisP The International Chamber of Commerce, representing businessmen of 10 countries, will submit to the conference a programme for European recovery. It says that existing resources must be fully used before any country has the moral right to claim aid. It adds that the tendency towards shorter working hours should be temporarily reversed, that budgets should be balanced, that nationalised industries should be made to pay, and that

the numbers of Government servants should be reduced. As he left London for the conference, the British Foreign Secretary (Mr Ernest Bevin) said: “I am a born optimist.” The French Foreign Minister (Mr Georges Bidault) yesterday received the Greek Foreign Minister (Mr Tsaldaris) and the Turkish Foreign Minister (Mr Sadak).

The Italian Foreign Minister (Count Sforza) said when he arrived in Paris: “It is high time to realise that our major duty is to organise Europe.” * In a leading article on the Paris conference, the “Daily Express” casts doubt on the wisdom of Britain allying herself with Italy, which “may be Communist after the elections in April,” and with France, which ‘‘stands under the shadow of an authoritarian regime and, it may be. civil war.” The “Daily Express” concludes: “Mr Bevin is in Paris to-day. He will be in Brussels on Wednesday. Mr Bevin should visit the Empire.”