Little Enthusiasm For Mew Soviet Proposal

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28792, 13 January 1959, Page 9

Little Enthusiasm For Mew Soviet Proposal

(Rec. 11.30 p.m.)

LONDON, January 12.

The latest Russian Note calling for a German peace treaty conference was, in the main, received without enthusiasm in this morning’s British press. But comment reflected a desire to keep the door open for negotiations with Russia.

“The Times” urged the West not to be afraid of talks with Russia. The newspaper said in a leading article: “A rearmed Germany equipped with nuclear weapons is likely in five or 10 years’ time to be very formidable indeed. Western Germany will have the largest army in Western Europe. How can Russia avert this?

“That is Mr Khrushchev’s problem. Our own is to determine how the situation can best be used to promote a long-term period of peace.” The “Manchester Guardian” submitted that two ways of answering the latest Russian Note were possible.

“One is to pay the Russians back in their own coin and to put forward the maximum demands of the West. ... The other is to move away from these long-range exchanges of irreconcilable proposals and to see whether any common ground can be discovered. "Agreement on a limited number of points may create a better climate in which a peace settlement becomes possible,” the newspaper said. The “Yorkshire Post” believed that Russia would need to come a long way to meet the West if a settlement is to be reached.

The “News Chronicle” said that the West was almost certain to reject the Note. “It would be a mistake, however, to return ap entirely negative reply to Moscow. As always we should be willing to negotiate,” it said. The “Daily Express” believed that the kind of conference proposed by Russia'would not lead to peace and said that Mr Mikoyan, now in the United States, should be invited to Britain next week to talk trade. “Mr Macmillan should go to Moscow to talk peace,” it added.