SOVIET NOTE TO WEST

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27210, 30 November 1953, Page 11

SOVIET NOTE TO WEST

LONDON, November 27. tonight suggested a meeting fata Foreign Ministers of Britain, Efta, the United States, and Russia, fa* Attested a venue in Berlin. Rusfatao suggested that such a meeting ■5” consider convening an early Rgtace of five Powers., including L’JlUUist China. Russia did not PJta a date for the Berlin meeting KjWfr down precise conditions. ■2 Rote dealt chiefly with the proUSE European Army and denied the Eta* charge that Russia’s condition Four Conference was a “deEurope.” ■J* Russian Note expressed strong C? °* a resurgence of German milit■2 said the proposed European Kg!’ in which a German division operatc, would ‘ leave the door ■Ktaen? for the re-emergence of military power. Kgtaor new element in the Note ft dropped the Russians’ prefafafjpgtance that there could be ■fta-'West meeting unless there was ■Efljtatjng to end the cold, war, at■jG? oy Communist China, as well as Kg we United States, Britain, and Ltjta Moscow Note insisted that a meeting was necessary later. ■C? that the West had acknowthat the Foreign Ministers IiRAyO discuss Asian problems. faj£r” or e it follows that the parIg oll of the Chine?? People’s RefeflTg a par with the four Great IjE? discussing and*-settling such ■ERtab. is essential aud indispen-

Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent says the United States distinctly cool reception to Russia’s acceptance of a four-Power meeting on Germany caused surprise and some concern in London. Mr Dulles was understood to have given his full support to a suggestion of a four-Power meeting on Germany when it was first discussed in Washington at the Big Three Foreign Ministers’ conference m. the summer. The three Foreign Ministers agreed then that the Soviet policy of the post-Stalin regime had to be tested. Mr Dulles and Mr Bidault both said a Foreign Ministers’ conference would be a better way of doing so than by the top-level talks suggested by Sir Winston Churchill. The State Department’s dislike of Moscow’s attack on Western motives, which accompanied her acceptance of the four-Power meeting, is shared in London, but since the Kremlin’s move necessitated an important Soviet concession—the dropping of the demand tor a prior meeting with Communist China—it was not considered surprising in London that it was cloaked in a further denunciation of Allied policy. There is not the slightest doubt in official quarters in London that the Western Powers must take up the Russian acceptance, which, like the State Department, they regard as the result of the West’s “diplomatic and moral initiative.” Effect on Bermuda

The Soviet Note has not affected ‘ the Big Three decision to meet at Bermuda, but it is bound to handicap their policy planning. Diplomatic quarters in Paris said today that the Western reply to the latest Soviet Note would receive priority at the conference and Western agreement on a meeting with the . Soviet Union was almost certain to be reached. Mr Laniel and Mr Bidault favour a meeting with the Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Molotov) though there is considerable doubt whether the Soviet is genuinely interested in a settlement of the German question. French officials noted that the Soviet Note did not make a direct reference to a conference on Germany as proposed by the Western Powers. The officials said the Soviet Note also did not indicate that Russia had modified her previous proposals for a settlement of the German problem deemed unacceptable by the Western Powers. As the latest Soviet Note said nothing to the contrary, it had to be assumed that the Kremlin leaders still considered the setting-up of an all-German Government as the first step to settle the German question. The Soviet had given no indication that it accepted the Western view that free elections throughout Ger- ; ■many must be the first step, but at < the same time, officials said, the Note represented far-reaching progress com- i pared with previous Soviet statements 1 since the Western Powers first suggested a four-Power meeting in July. Mr Bidault said today that a Big ; Four meeting seemed probable, but the question whether Berlin was acceptable as the site was “another

matter.” , „ . Mr Anthony Nutting, the British Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, told a political meeting at Leicester tonight that the Soviet Noto seemed to open the road to the hope of a meeting without prior conditions, but he warned against too much optimism. “We might well find some of the conditions previously advanced by the Soviet Government as essential will be brought up again,” he said. American View The State Department yesterday described the latest Soviet Note as disappointing and as “another Soviet effort to impede progress” on ratification of the European Defence Community Treaty. It was also said to be a tactical retreat and further evidence that Soviet policy was on the defensive. An official statement which was authorised by Mr Dulles said:— “One of the most significant and obvious aspects of the. Note is that it has been timed to coincide with the current foreign policy debate in the French Parliament and would appear, therefore, to represent another Soviet effort to impede progress on the European Defence Community and other steps towards greater European unity ana strength. t .. “A second significant aspect of tne Note is that it is another effort to gloss over the uncompromising nature of Soviet policy as exposed by the Note of November 3. “That Note shocked the world by revealing that the Soviets were not willing to seek a relaxation of tensions unless the Western Powers in effect abandoned in advance vital policy and security positions.” The statement said that the Note showed no change from Soviet attitudes in previous Notes and at the current United Nations session but that .it would “of course continue to receive most serious consideration by this Government”