TENSIONS MAY BE EASING

Press, Volume C, Issue 29672, 16 November 1961, Page 15

TENSIONS MAY BE EASING

ispeciatly written tor the N.Z.P.A. by FRANK OLIVER)

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15. It is widely considered that though the West German Ambassador to Moscow (Mr Hans Kroll) may be in hot water in Bonn, he probably did a good day’s work for the West at his nowfamous interview with Mr Khrushchev.

Whether Mr Kroll’s activities were responsible or not is hard to say. but there is a much more cheerful atmosphere in these parts. It could be merely the election results, which are said to have cheered the President much more than he will publicly admit It may be that the feeling that war is impossible is spreadMr Harry Truman’s attitude. as he expressed it recently, seems to have been infectious. He said the Russian-American situation reminded him of certain underpass which required a very sharp right turn to get in and an equally sharp right turn to get out He had complained to an official, who replied. “Yes. that damn underpass is so dangerous its safe.”

Anyhow there is general hope, that amounts almost to expectation, that Berlin prospects are a little better. Part of this is, perhaps, due to the relief that at long last another Bonn Government exists, with Dr. Adenauer as its chief. Hope is expressed that he is coming to Washington with rather more than he brought last time and that at last a start can be made at working out a Western negotiating position. Also, there is the pleasant report that the great national furore about fall-out shelters is calming down and getting into focus. The only people who are sad about this are the providers of iron and steel, the makers of cement, brick and other clay products, who have lately been so solicitous about the future well being of the nation.

Suspicion exists that when officialdom a few months ago brought up the matter of shelters, the idea was to wake up citizens and, as the “New York Times” says, to make them personally aware of the relationship between foreign policj and family life. James Reston says it succeeded so well that it scared the daylights out of quite a few and officialdom is now wondering how to cheer them up and calm them down. Slightly sarcastically, he reminds the Administration that a man can be thrown into gaol in this country for

shouting “fire” in a crowded theatre. "But the Government has been shouting for months about the biggest fire in the history of the world without coming up with a plan for dealing with it,” he wrote. * * * Meanwhile, a topic of ever widening dimensions is the future of American foreign trade and the emergence of a bigger Common Market. As has been said many times, the entry of Britain and other members out of the Seven into the Common Market is a development America has long dreamed about and this country still regards that combination as highly desirable for Europe now and in the future.

But the potential emergency of this economic and industrial colossus is causing some anxious thinking here and there. It is known that the possibility and desirability of the United States joining the Common Market when its European enlargement is complete has been discussed in official circles. Now comes Mr Eric Johnson, a former member of the United States Chamber of Commerce and a Government adviser on economic policy for 30 years, saying, “We must join the Common Market.” The European trading bloc, he says, is at present an uncommon challenge to

America “to help ourselves and to give substance to the concept of Western unity.” He adds that this country has a great opportunity to provide for its children an invaluable heritage and "the opportunity must be grasped now—the world will not wait for us.” The United States cannot exist w’ithout foreign trade, which is the cornerstone of its prosperity, and he foresees—if America takes her opportunity—that what began with the Common Market could become a free open trading area encompassing all Western Europe, Great Britain, the United States and Canada. Mr Johnson adds that if the United States fails to join the Common Market, it will become an economic threat and “our jobs, our wages, our security and our future are at stake.”

This represents advanced rather than common economic thinking in Washington, but there is general praise in all but a very few conservative press organs for what is described as the President’s courageous and constructive statement on trade policy at his press conference last week.

He is beginning to build up a favourable state of public opinion before he faces the crucial test in Congress next year over his request for a renewal and extension of his power to cut tariffs.