POLICY OF BRITAIN

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28231, 20 March 1957, Page 13

POLICY OF BRITAIN

Macmillan’s Speech

(Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, Mar. 19. The British Prime Minister, Mr Macmillan, will leave London tonight for his Bermuda meeting with President Eisenhower pledged to clear up differences and restore British-American relations as the cornerstone of world peace. The Prime Minister pledged that this would be the main object of their meeting when he addressed a political rally in Leicester last night. • * . ♦ In his first major statement oi policy since assuming office Mr Macmillan listed four main questions to be discussed at Bermuda. These were:

The obscure and dangerous situation in the Middle East. Arrangements for maintaining “the great bastion of NATO — still the main defence of Europe.”

The new movements towards economic co-operation in Europe and their place in the pattern of an ever-increasing world trade. The problems of the Far East “so vital for British interests and for those of our Commonwealth friends, Australia and New Zealand.”

The Foreign Secretary, Mr Selwyn Lloyd, will fly to Bermuda with Mr Macmillan. The United States Ambassador in London, Mr John Hay Whitney, will go with them,

The talks will be the first toplevel meeting since the rupture in relations between the two Powers caused by the British and French intervention in Egypt. Mr Macmillan is an old friend of President Eisenhower, withwhom he worked during World War II as the Resident British Minister in North Africa. He said in his Leicester speech last night: “We shall not meet as strangers. Indeed, there was a time during the war when we saw each other almost daily.” Mr Macmillan shares a qualification with Sir Winston Churchill —he had an American mother.

The first contingent of White House officials has arrived at Hamilton, Bermuda, to prepare for the opening of the talks on Thursday, a report from Hamilton said today. Final preparations are under way at the exclusive Midocean Club, where President Eisenhower and Mr Macmillan will stay and conduct the talks. Mr Macmillan will arrive in Bermuda first. Six hours after he lands on Wednesday (at 1400 G.M.T.), he will drive to Albuoy’s Point to greet the President, who is making a leisurely cruise from the United States.