This May Be Decisive Week In Paris

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26398, 17 April 1951, Page 7

This May Be Decisive Week In Paris

(N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, April 16. The Paris correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that the four Deputy Foreign Ministers will to-day enter the seventh week of their negotiations to arrive at an agreed agenda for a meeting of Foreign Ministers. The new week, according to conference circles, may well prove decisive. There was an extremely frank exchange of views on Saturday at a luncheon given by the French Deputy (Mr Parodi). It is understood that neither the Western Powers nor Russia showed any inclination to make even minor concessions. In spite of this some quarters are showing a slight tendency towards optimism.

Neither the West nor Russia wish to break off negotiations, or be blamed for doing so. There seems also to be a genuine desire on all sides to arrange for an eventual Big Four Foreign Ministers’ meeting. The ueputies will meet again tomorrow, but the Western Deputies’ chief advisers will meet this morning.

This meeting should be of particular interest, as the United States adviser (Mr C. E. Bohlen) and the British adviser (Sir Ivo Mallet) will have just returned to Paris from Washington and London, where they have been consulting their Governments.