Note “Paves Way For Macmillan”

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28823, 18 February 1959, Page 13

Note “Paves Way For Macmillan”

(Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, February 17. Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow said today that the West’s proposal for a four-Power Foreign Ministers’ conference on Germany had paved the way for Mr Macmillan’s “reconnaissance” of the Russian mind in Moscow next week.

Although firm, the Western proposal was sufficiently brief : and non-committal to allow the < British Prime Minister . all the J freedom he must have if his ; exploration of Soviet intentions, during his talks with Mr Khrushchev and other Soviet leaders was to be deep and broad. The Western Suggestion that 1 East and West German advisers : should attend the conference ap- , peared to meet Soviet demands, he said. But the brevity and the nature I of the Notes re-emphasised the I gulf that divided East and West : in their attitudes to a German i settlement. The Notes avoided giving a definite answer to the Soviet proposal for a congress to conclude a German peace treaty. They eschewed all reference to troop withdrawals, disengagement, nuclear-free zones, or nonaggression pacts. “The Soviet leaders will no doubt be* irritated that there should be no specific replies to their proposals.” the ■ correspondent said.

' “No Positive Proposals” The East German news service said last night that the Western Notes to Russia did not contain “positive proposals.” The Russian proposals on a peace treaty for Germany and on a “free city” of Berlin had actually been rejected by the Western Notes, it said. “The Western answers do not contain a single positive counterproposal to be placed beside the numerous suggestions and proposals made by the latest Soviet documents on the German and Berlin question,” it said. The United States Note also repeated the “threats already known” about a defence of the Western petition in Berlin by force if necessary, the official news service said.

Reuters said officials in London discussing the Western ' Notes asserted that “at the moment” there was not necessarily any connexion between the proposed Foreign Ministers* meeting and a summit conference.

But, they commented that a heads of Government conference was not excluded if the Foreign Ministers made substantial progress in their talks and held out hope that meaningful agreements eould be reached. However, the officials seemea barely optimistic that ths Soviet

Union would drop .its proposal for an International conference on a German peace treaty tn favour of the West's counter-pro-posal’.

They said that the Soviet Union had given no sign that it was willing to modify proposals which in tact reflected a tougher line and which would perpetuate, rather than end, the present division of Germany. Officials indicated that the West would continue to reject the Soviet position that Berlin should be treated as an isolated problem, and that it would insist on negotiations.

CANTEENS FOR ABORIGINES Missions Oppose Proposal

(Rec. 10 p.m.) DARWIN, February 17. Church and missionary leaders in Darwin today bitterly opposed the suggestion that liquor canteens should be opened on Government settlements and church missions, and that natives should be "educated” to drink.

The suggestion was made yesterday by Mr E. C. Evan's, chief welfare officer of the Department of Welfare, which controls all Northern Territory natives. He told an inquiry that the aboriginals must be educated to drink with restraint, and that supervised canteens should be provided at settlements and missions. Uncontrolled drinking among natives bad become a major social problem, which could be solved only by education, he said. Mission leaders said today they would never tolerate wet canteens in their missions.

Bear Hunt Far Macmillan.— The British Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan) has been invited to go on a bear hunt during his visit to Russia, newspapers said today. If he accepts the hunt will be organised in the frozen forests north of Leningrad.— London, February 17.