N.Z. MAY SEEK CEASE FIRE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27565, 24 January 1955, Page 9

N.Z. MAY SEEK CEASE FIRE

Possible Action In U.N.

(Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Jan. 22. The United States, Britain and New Zealand would continue exploratipn over the week-end of a way to implement President Eisenhower’s suggestion that the United Nations should try to end the China fighting, Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent reported today.

Mr Holland, the New Zealand Prime Minister, had scheduled a conference on the matter in the New Zealand Embassy for today amid reports that New Zealand may formally present a ceasefire resolution to the United Nations. Authoritative sources said that an exchange of information with Britain and the United States would flow from today’s conference, but it could not be confirmed that these nations would have representatives at the conference. Mr Holland’s visit to the United States had coincided with a rapid procession of events in the last week which seemed to indicate a revision of basic United States policy towards the China problem, the correspondent said. Two Moves Discussed

Two possible courses to stop the hostilities off China’s coast were now tinker discussion, he said. The first xv.s that Mr Dag Hammarskjold. the United Nations Secretary-General, s.iould use his good offices to end the fi ..hting as a basis for negotiation. Supporters of this suggestion pointed out that in his attempts to get China to release the 11 United States airmen he’d by China as spies, Mr Hammarskjold had formed close personal contacts with both Peking and Washington. He seemed to have the confidence of leaders in both capitals. The second possible action being discussed, the correspondent added, was for New Zealand or some other nation formally to present a cease-fire resolution in the Security Council. One difficulty immediately foreseen was that the Nationalist representative could veto the move and could challenge the United Nations’ competence to deal with what the Nationalists claim is a civil war. That difficulty militated for the first suggestion, which also had the virtue of not requiring the Communists or Nationalists to recognise each other’s status in a formal written agreement. New U.S. Policy? There was information in Washington that the last week had been the climax of a long-range United States plan aimed at easing tensions with Communist China and stabilising a potential sparking point for a third world war. the correspondent said. That plan, it was learned authoritatively, first began to take shape last October in talks at the State Department. These talks were held in great secrecy, and it was not until last Tuesday that Mr Dulles first dared test public reaction towards the Administration’s plan. On Tuesday, Mr Dulles said that a cease fire in the Formosa area would be in line with United States policy. President Eisenhower joined him in this assertion next day. Official Washington had been extremely surprised at the lack of publjc outcry. Even Senator William Knowland, the Republican minority leader, who had previously been loud in his calls for a blockade of China, raised no opposition. , . . . x , Observers considered it might have been significant that on that same day, the State Department chose to announce that Mr Dag Hammarskjold s mission to Peking offered some hone that the United States airmen might be released, “given restraint on all sides.