Groundwork Laid For U.S.-British Talks

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28415, 23 October 1957, Page 13

Groundwork Laid For U.S.-British Talks

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 9.40 p.m.) WASHINGTON, October 21. Final preparations went ahead today for the. opening of the “Big Two” meeting to open in Washington on Wednesday between President Eisenhower and Mr Macmillan, the British Prime Minister.

The State Department spokesman announced that Mr Dulles, the Secretary of State, would call on Mr Eisenhower tomorrow morning and later in the day would confer with Mr Selwyn Lloyd, the British Foreign Secretary, at the State Department. Mr Dulles, at the same time, cancelled his weekly press conference, usually held on Tuesdays.

The diplomatic correspondent of Reuter said it would be Mr Lloyd’s third meeting with Mr Dulles within a week. The two previous sessions were devoted to laying the ground work for the EisenhowerMacmillan conversations. It was intended that tomorrow the two Foreign Ministers would complete drawing up the informal agenda for the top-level talks.

The Middle East situation and the question of Allied co-opera-tion in the scientific field would occupy the two top places on that agenda, according to all the advance indications. Reports that Mr Macmillan would seek a new agreement with Mr Eisenhower to pool the Western Allies’ scientific knowledge as one means of countering the recent dramatic Soviet advances became more persistent today. In fact, it was suggested, Mr Eisenhower might already be working on such a proposal himself. On the Middle East front, Mr Eisenhower and Mr Macmillan were expected to exchange various ideas for combating the spread of Soviet influence. It was already known that both Governments were thinking along the lines of a stepped-up psychological campaign and greater economic aid to bring about more confidence in the Middle East, the Reuter correspondent said. BAGDAD PACT (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, October 22. The possibility that the United States may seek to meet the growing Communist pressure in the Middle East by becoming a full member of the Bagdad Pact defence alliance is being canvassed in London as the British Prime Minister, Mr Macmillan, prepares to fly to Washington at midnight to-night for urgent talks with President Eisenhower. The talks are designed to coordinate British and American policy in the face of Soviet scientific progress and Communist pressure in the Middle East. The United States joined the Bagdad Pact’s Military Committee after the British and American conference in Bermuda last March.