RESUMPTION OF TALKS WITH SOVIET

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25797, 7 May 1949, Page 7

RESUMPTION OF TALKS WITH SOVIET

Cautious Approach Reported In London “STEP TOWARD SOLUTION OF GERMAN PROBLEM” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 pm ) LONDON, Mav 6. “The decision to lift the Berlin blockade and resume fourPower negotiations among Russia and the Western Powers is welcomed in London as a step toward the solution of the German problem, but not as a solution in itself,” savs Router’s diplomatic correspondent, “Officials and observers of the three Western Powers in London sounded a note of caution based, not on any lack of goodwill or of desire to find an agreed solution for the whole of Germany, but on a realistic appreciation of the situation existing to-day. “This underlying situation, which the Council of Foreign Ministers will have to face in Paris, is that Germany is geographically part both of the Eastern European svstetn which has been developed since the war under Moscow’s leadership, and of a W estern Europe, ste I rlily crystallising into a co-ordin-ated political and economic ii|iit. “Observers in London consequently predict that the scheduled Foreign Ministers’ meeting on May 23 in Paris will either develop into a sincere effort by both sides to reach a limited, practical agreement for an interim settlement in Germany; or it will degenerate into an effort to Win public opinion throughout Germany for a political solution on Eastern or W estern lines. It is clear from a statement bv the British Foreign Secretary (Mr Ernest Bevin) in the House of Commons yesterday that the three Western Powers will approach the Paris conference in the former sense. “Between now and the Paris meeting. American, British, and French experts yvill join forces to prepare in detail for all foreseeable eventualities that may arise jn Paris. As an official of the Western Powers put it, ‘the lifting of the blockade marks the beginning, not the end, of the real problems involved in finding an overall solution for Germany.’”