Prime Ministers To Meet In January

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27500, 6 November 1954, Page 7

Prime Ministers To Meet In January

LONDON, November 4. Sir Winston Churchill told the House of Commons today that a meeting of Commonwealth Prime Ministers will open in London on January 31. The Prime Minister said the Ministers will discuss “many things of great importance in the international world. . . _i “Many things of great importance in the international world nave taken place since our last meeting at the time of the Coronation," he said. “These will be among the principal subjects for our consideration. “I am sure the House will join with me in welcoming this opportunity for. consultation with the heads of the other Commonwealth Governments, from which, I am convinced as of former occasion, general benefit will resul \: Mr Arthur Henderson, who was Air Minister in. the late La b? u ’\ Go Y? r ?r ment. asked the Prime Minister if he ’ would seek the approval of the visiting statesmen for a meeting between himself and Mr Georgi Malenkov, the. Soviet -Prime Minister. Sir Winston Churchill replied: “No subject will be excluded-from the discussions of the V *Th™ Commonwealth Prime Ministers i held -their last London conference immediately after the Coronation of , Queen JJlzabeth m June, 1953.. I - Questions expected to rank high for ■ consideration at the forthcoming conference are these; —- , 1. The recent arrangements for West ! Germany's admission to the Western European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and to give

sovereignty to the Federal Republic. 2. Britain’s pledge to keep four and a half divisions and a tactical air force on the European Continent until 1998, with its implications for the Commonwealth. 3. The position following the settlement of the Anglo-Persian oil dispute —the agreement between Britain and Egypt on the future of the Suez Canal zone base, and the Pakistani-Turkish accord. 4. The situation following the signing of the Korean armistice and the ending of the eight-year Indo-China Economic questions will not be in the forefront of the present conference, but the statesmen will hear a report on the position of the sterling area, of which the Commonwealth—excepting

Canada—is the main part. Since the Prime Ministers last met, the central gold and dollars reserves of the area have been greatly strengthened and - the area’s trade expanded: Mr Nehru, India's Prime Minister, who recently returned to Dehli from a visit to China, is expected to give the Prime Ministers a first-hand account of his trip and his talks with Mao Tse-tung and other Chinese leaders. Mr Nehru’s visit to the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ conference will follow a meeting of Colombo Conference Powers in Indonesia at the end of December, which Mr Nehru will also attend. In February he will go to Indonesia again for a conference on Asian and African affairs.