MEDIATION BY AMERICA

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28514, 18 February 1958, Page 13

MEDIATION BY AMERICA

Optimism About

Results

(Rec. 8 p.m.) WASHINGTON, February 16.

State Department officials said today that they were reasonably optimistic that the crisis between France and Tunisia was abating. A Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent said hopes for averting or limiting a bitter United Nations Security Council debate on the French bombing of Sakiet-Sidi-Youssef was rising as United States diplomats made last-minute attempts to get the two countries to negotiate directly. A State Department spokesman confirmed that United States moves in the crisis were dictated by the belief that France and Tunisia had everything to gain by agreeing to withdraw their charges and counter-charges of aggression, which are due to come before the Security Council next Tuesday. The Reuter correspondent said that if France and Tunisia decided to go ahead, it was hoped that they could be reconciled to accepting a resolution that simply would call on them to negotiate a settlement of their differences, possibly with the mediation of a neutral country. Official statements in Paris yesterday, that France was willing to accept the good offices of the United States together with signs of moderation in Tunisia, encouraged the State Department to believe that tension was easing. Mr Dulles, the Secretary of State, is cutting short his holiday in Atlantic City and returning to Washington tomorrow to take charge of the United States attempts to settle the crisis..