Regrets In U.K. And France

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28821, 16 February 1959, Page 11

Regrets In U.K. And France

(Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, February 14. Britain’s Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary, Mr Macmillan and Mr Selwyn Lloyd, today expressed the hope that Mr Dulles would make a speedy recovery. /The report that Mr Dulles had cancer was passed to them at the Prime Minister’s official country residence. Chequers, Buckinghamshire, where they are discussing their visit next week to Moscow. A Foreign Office spokesman Baid .they received the report with great regret and expressed the hope that the treatment would be successful. In Paris, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said the announcement about Mr Dulles was *yery bad news for the Western Powers.” He said the profound admiration of the French Government tor Dulles’s energy had increased during his recent visit to Europe •nd the French people had great respect for the work the Secjetary qf State had done for the Western cause.

Mr Dulles’s condition today was described as comfortable. He spent a comfortable night and was in good spirits when the President visited him.

Mr Dulles, who will be 71 on February 25, entered the hospital on Tuesday after his return to Washington from talks on the German problem in London, Paris and Bonn.

He was originally expected to stay away from his desk for at

least three or four weeks—provided that doctors did not find any recurrence of the cancer. There has been speculation that he was so ill that he would have to resign and be replaced as Secretary of State. , Officials do not expect Mr Dulles to be able to join the Foreign Ministers of Britain, France and West Germany in the Paris talks due in March to prepare Western policy towards an East-West conference expected to take place next May. The State Department spokesman, Mr Lincoln White, said that Mr Dulles would remain in the hospital for several weeks and radiation therapy treatments would be started next week. Mr White said that Mr Dulles had had some trouble with the colon inflammation during his whirlwind trip to London, Paris, and Bonn last week to discuss the German problem" with Allied leaders.