U.K.-FRENCH TALKS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28870, 15 April 1959, Page 13

U.K.-FRENCH TALKS

“Agreement On Essentials”

(Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON. April 14. The British and French Prime Ministers, Mr Macmillan and Mr Michel Debre, on the Anal day of their two-day talks today, are expected to turn to the complex problems of the Middle East and Africa, authoritative sources said. They reached agreement on essentials yesterday during a profound discussion of the German. Berlin and European security issues.

The European aspect of the talks is a part of the intensive Allied preparations for the East-West Foreign Ministers' conference beginning in Geneva on May 11. The sources expected the two Prime Ministers today to touch upon the latest developments in the Middle East, particularly the implications of the current negotiations between the Bagdad Government and the Iraq Petroleum Company, in which both Britain and France have shares. The Prime Ministers are also likely to examine Western European trade prospects after the failure last December of negotiations for a free trade area. The newspaper. ‘Taris Journal." said today that Mr Macmillan told Mr Debre he was in favour of negotiating the Berlin and European security problems simultaneously. but as generate questions and excluding for the present any negotiation on German reunification.

The newspaper said Mr Macmillan considered a zone of inspection and a limitation of armaments as “a good start” on the question of European security. A working group of senior officials of Britain, France, the United States and West Germany is bolding its first full-scale meeting in London to prepare detailed Western briefs for the Geneva negotiations.