Rusk Reporting To Kennedy

Press, Volume C, Issue 29634, 3 October 1961, Page 15

Rusk Reporting To Kennedy

(fI.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) WASHINGTON, October 2. President Kennedy will return to Washington today from his holiday in Newport, Rhode Island, to get a first hand report from Mr Dean Rusk on the Secretary of State’s meetings with Mr Andrei Gromyko on the Berlin crisis.

Mr Rusk returned to Washington from New York on Saturday evening after briefing the British Foreign Secretary (Lord Home) on his talks with the Soviet Foreign Minister.

Mr Gromyko remained in New York and so .*ar no date has been fixed for him to meet Mr Rusk or President Kennedy. A White House spokesman said last night that President Kennedy had been sufficiently encouraged by the Rusk-Gromyko talks to wish to meet the Russian Foreign Minister this week. These talks, three between Mr Rusk and Mr Gromyko and two between Lord Home and Mr Gromyko, had led to optimism that negotiations might be possible on the Berlin problem. Talks “Useful”

Although there has been no official indication that either side has changed its position, Western spokesmen

have called the talks “useful” and "worthwhile.” The United States believed that the West Berlin issue would be submitted to the United Nations or to a summit conference before the Soviet Union took any decisive action to curb Western rights in the city, the “New York Times” reported today. The “Big Four” Foreign Ministers, of Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union, were expected to meet in Europe in November if further talks between Mr Rusk and Mr Gromyko showed that the Soviet Union was willing to agree to an agenda acceptable to the Western nations, the newspaper said. The purpose of the RuskGromyko talks also so far has been to help decide whether a summit conference on Berlin and the German question would be worthwhile. The Berlin issue could be put before the United Nations by either side, the “New York Times” said. It was believed the West would not resort to this until after a high-level EastWest meeting, if such a meeting could be arranged. This was because Britain, France and West Germany all had reservations about the ability of the United Nations to take decisions on such a question or enforce them once they were taken. Soviet Statements

Statements in the General Assembly by Mr Gromyko had indicated that the Soviet Union was considering giving the case to the organisation, the “New York Times” said. He had said the United Nations could not remain neutral or indifferent to the Berlin dispute and suggested that the United Nations guarantee any settlement reached. The Soviet Union has held that the United Nations has no jurisdiction over World War II settlements.

But it might have changed its views with the weakening of the Western position in the United Nations through the growing number of

neutralist members, the “New York Times” said. From Berlin, Reuter reported that West Berlin’s Governing Mayor (Mr Willi Brandt) said in a broadcast yesterday that the Western position with regard to Berlin had become noticeably firm.

“The rights of the West in Berlin will never be abandoned,” he said. “The freedom of West Berlin could only be affected by force, and such a move would be answered with force. “The Soviet Union knows that and knows what limits she cannot exceed,” Mr Brandt said.