U.S. SUPPORT UNLIKELY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27038, 13 May 1953, Page 9

U.S. SUPPORT UNLIKELY

Conditions For Meeting

(NX. Press Association—Cowright} (Rec. 9p.m ) WASHINGTON, May U. There was little or no likelihood of Mr Eisenhower agreeing to the proposal by Sir Wineton Churchill for a top-level Great Power conference with the Soviet Union “without long delay,” Renter’s diplomatidcorrespondent reported today. In the absence of the Secretary of State (Mr Dulles) in the Middle East, officials declined to comment for publication, but privately they expressed strong doubts whether the proposal would result in the kind of chief executives conference in the near future to which Sir Winston Churchill was assumed to be referring. The proposal came without warning to United States Government leaders. Mr Dulles had replied “no” when asked at a press conference on the eve of his departure whether he had received any communication from Britain regarding a top-level Great Power meeting. Only three weeks ago Mr Dulles threw cold water on an earlier suggestion by Sir Winston Churchill regarding such a meeting and emphasising the importance of careful planning and preparation. before such meetings. This appeared to put Mr Dulles in opposition to Sir Winston Churchill's suggestion that the meeting should take place “without long delay.” Mr Dulles’s attitude was in accordance with the long-established postwar State Department policy that negotiations with a Soviet Prime Minister were of little value unless there had been inevitably long and careful preparations in advance, including successful negotiations at lower official levels.

s|r Eisenhower’s Views Mr Eisenhower himself has been quoted as insisting that certain conditions should be fulfilled—conditions not required by Sir Winston Churchill today before he could agree to meet Soviet leaders. These conditions were:— (1) That there should be an advance assurance that the meeting would produce some constructive results. (2) That the role to be played by the United States President should be one which the American people might expect of their chief executive. (3) That the meeting should take place with full knowledge by the United States, its allies, and its friends of the subjects under dis-

cussion. (4) That the kind of agreements to be sought from the Soviet Union should be of the self-enforcing type leaving no doubt as to what would happen following the agreement. The correspondent said that such conditions would appear to require a meeting very different from the informal and private one suggested by Sir Winston Churchill. Meanwhile a White House assistant said that Sir Winston Churchill’s statement had been called to Mr Eisenhower’s attention, but there would be no immediate White House comment. First reaction among Congressmen was cautious.

Senator Alexander Wiley, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. said that he could see no parharm in such a meeting. He ? dd ? d i. , But neither do I see much good that could result unless there is a definite and genuine indication by theKremlln that they mean business ” The Speaker of the House of Rep"sentatives <Mr Joseph Martin) said: While everybody wants peace, we probably would get very little result from such a meeting,”