UNITY FOR GERMANY

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28820, 14 February 1959, Page 13

UNITY FOR GERMANY

Talks Plan Studied

WASHINGTON, February 12. . The State Department said today that it would give full attention to a proposal by Senator Mike Mansfield (Democrat, Montana) for direct negotiations between East and West Germany on unifying the country, and lowering the tension of the cold war.

The department news officer (Mr Lincoln White) said the department was studying the suggestions, which Senator Mansfield made earlier in a speech prepared for Senate delivery. Mr White added that other suggestions that might be put forward also would be given careful scrutiny. He would not expand this statement.

Senator Mansfield, the assistant Democrat leader in the Senate, and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the time had come for postive action and a “great deal of talk” between the Communist East Germans and West Germany. He said Berliners should start negotiating now. The senator outlined a list of “essentials” for a new Western policy on Germany, including careful consideration of proposals for a demilitarised zone in Middle Europe.

“We are approaching the beginning of the end, the beginning of the end of two Berlins and of two Germanies,” he said. He endorsed the Eisenhower Administration’s determination to stand firm on the, Berlin issue, but said the allies might be leading the world “down the blind alley of an unnecessary -onflict, or a disastrous diplomatic retreat” by insisting that the Big Powers could unify Germany simply by ordering free elections.