Foreign Ministers Discuss Procedure For Geneva

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27688, 18 June 1955, Page 7

Foreign Ministers Discuss Procedure For Geneva

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, June 16. The Big Three Western Foreign Ministers conferred in private today for two hours and 40 minutes on procedural questions to be suggested to the Soviet Union for the forthcoming “summit” meeting in Geneva. The three Ministers, Mr Harold Macmillan, the British Foreign Secretary, Mr John Foster Dulles, the United Stages Secretary of State, and Mr Antoine Pinay, the French Foreign Minister, conferred privately in the library at the home of Sir Pierson Dixon, the British permanent representative at the United Nations. After the meeting, the following agreed statement was issued: “Mr Dulles, the United States Secretary of State, and Mr Pinay, the French Foreign Minister, lunched with Mr Macmillan at Wave Hili, the residence of Sir Pierson Dixon.”

“After luncheon there was a general discussion preparatory to the meeting which the three Ministers, representing the three inviting Powers, have arranged to have with Mr Molotov, the Soviet Foreign Minister, in San Francisco on Monday. “At this stage the main topics discussed were the procedure to be suggested to Mr Molotov for the forthcoming meeting of heads of Governments which has now been definitely fixed for July 18 in Geneva. “The discussions will be resumed tomorrow morning. The Federal German Chancellor, Dr. Adenauer, wijl join the Ministers at lunch tomorrow for discussions on matters affecting Germany,” the statement said. The Ministers will meet twice tomorrow at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Today’s meeting, it was learned, was wholly informal. There was no chairman and Mr Macmillan and Mr Dulles both sat in armchairs with Mr Pinay on a sofa together with Mr Maurice Couve de Murville, the French Ambassador to the United States, and Mr Henri Hoppenot, the French delegate to the United Nations.

British sources said that the meeting was concerned purely with procedure, such as the arrangements to be proposed to Mr Molotov for the Big Four conference in Geneva. The same sources said that there had been no decision on an agenda for the Geneva meeting, addirig that it was not the intention to have a rigid agenda. “Long Journey” » The meeting was the beginning of what Mr Macmillan called “a long journey” towards the ultimate objective of lasting peace. He went directly from the airport upon his arrival this morning to Wave Hill. Mr Dulles arrived for the conference shortly afterwards, accompanied by his Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Mr Livingston Merchant) and Mr Douglas MacArthur, a Stated Department Counsellor. The French Foreign Minister, who had cautioned at the airport upon his arrival today against expecting “miracles” from the forthcoming Big Four talks, stopped at the United Nations headquarters to visit the Secretary-General (Mr Dag Hammarskjold) before arriving at the conference.