ARMISTICE TALKS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27370, 8 June 1954, Page 11

ARMISTICE TALKS

Membership Of i Commission ’ (Bee. 11.50 p.m.) GENEVA, June 7. j ■Hie French Foreign Minister* (Mr j Bidaiilt) is expected to tell the Soviet ] 1 ielegate (Mr Molotov) today that ( g Prance will accept the five “Colombo ( powers” as candidates for "the armis- ’ tice commission on Indo-China, reports ] ■ the diplomatic correspondent of Reu- » Uers. ‘ . i The French agreement to propose the , : Colombo nations—lndia, Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma, and Indonesia —follows the . virtual deadlock reached at the peace J talks over the nations to form the arm- | ■stice commission. ( The non-Communist nations rejected j j the suggestion of Russia, China and Vietminh that the commission should , comprise India, Pakistan, Poland and £ - Czechoslovakia. Mr Bidault is expected to tell Mr Molotov that the membership of the ( Colombo nations now had the unani- ( nous* support of Britain, France and j the United States. ! The Colombo Powers themselves have already indicated that they are willing to serve on such a commission s provided they approve the terms of j finv settlement reached at Geneva. ( Mr Molotov has asked for a semipubiic plenary session on Indo-China | tomorrow. with the aim, it is believed, j of influencing the critical Indo-China j debate in the French National Assembly this week. The debate will be resumed simultaneously with the Indo-China session in Geneva. Mr Krishna Menon, India’s United Nations representative, had private talks with Mr Pham Van Dong, the Vietminh Communist Deputy Premier, in Geneva today on how to restore peace in Indo-China. It was the third meeting between Mr Menon and Mr Dong since the Indian envoy began his discussions in Geneva with the non-Communist and Communist leaders. Today’s meeting came after a 90ninute* discussion yesterday between the Indian statesman and Mr Bidault. Mr Bidault was to see Mr Molotov . this morning. |