EMPIRE TALKS IN CEYLON

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25998, 29 December 1949, Page 5

EMPIRE TALKS IN CEYLON

MR BEVIN LEAVES LONDON

HEALTH PRECAUTIONS (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 28. The British Foreign Secretary (Mr Ernest Bevin), who left London yesterday on the first stage of his journey to Colombo for the Commonwealth Foreign Ministers’ conference, was accompanied by his doctor, Sir Alexander McCall, who went to Moscow with him for a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers in 1947. The diplomatic correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that Mr Bevin’s journey to Colombo has been arranged to obviate any long air trip. He travelled by train and steamer to Calais and then by train to Rome. From Rome he will fly in a Royal Air Force aeroplane to Port Said or Suez, and will then leave for Colombo in the cruiser Kenya. Before leaving, London. Mr Bevin told reporters that he felt well. He said he could not give details of the talks which would be held, but they would obviously deal with subjects of interest to the British Commonwealth, and would include matters of world importance.

The Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations' <Mr P. Noel-Baker) and the rest of the British party of experts and advisers will leave for Colombo by air in a few days. According to a Sydney message. \he Australian Minister of External Affairs (Mr P. C. Spender) will leave for the Colombo conference on January 2, three days earlier than previously intended, in order to visit the President and Foreign Affairs Minister of the United States of Indonesia. Mr Spender said it was most important for Australia that there should be a stable Government in Indonesia.