EASING IN TENSION

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27699, 1 July 1955, Page 11

EASING IN TENSION

Comment Of Mr Eisenhower WASHINGTON, June 29. President Eisenhower told his press conference today that the chances of easing world tensions through next month’s Big Four meeting are better today than he thought they were two months ago. The President, replying to questions about his views on the prospects of the meeting at Geneva, said he was not trying to expect too much. Some change had obviously come about in the Soviet attitude. If that change was one which made it easier to live with the Soviets, easier to negotiate with them, easier to solve problems, then it could : not but help eventually to have a fine effect on the entire general situation. The President said that no-one believed that the Marxist doctrine of world revolution had been abandoned, and they had to be careful. However, if ways could be found to take some of the burdens of fear and tension off the people, they should be explored to the maximum. It was then that the President said that he personally believed that the chances for that were better than he thought they were two months ago. He thought the world, including the United States, deserved a renewed opportunity through such a meeting as the Geneva conference to attempt to discover ■what were the intentions of the Powers.

The United States, he said, was trying to explain itself as eloquently and intimately as possible to those who opposed it, and was trying to get the same impressions of Soviet intentions and purposes. He hoped that the Soviet leaders at the Geneva conference would have some powers of decision. Mr Eisenhower said he did not necessarily rule out the possibility of some decisions being reached at the Geneva meeting but he did not expect any solutions. There could be decisions on how the Big Four would approach specific problems. The United States was working on a general approach to the problems of world disarmament for the conference. but did not have a completed programme for presentation yet. He told his press conference in response to questions, that the Government, through the efforts of Mr Harold Stassen, his special assistant on disarmament, was coming together on a general approach to the problem, but it would be a very long and tortuous road.