New East-West Talks Expected This Week

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29716, 9 January 1962, Page 11

New East-West Talks Expected This Week

(N .Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8. Another round of United States-Soviet Union exploratory talks on Berlin was expected to be held in Moscow this week, U.S, officials said today. The officials said the United States Government had sent new instructions to the United States Ambassador (Mr

Llewellyn Thompson), who opened the exploratory talks last week in a conference with the Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Andrei Gromyko). State Department officials declined to reveal the nature of the new instructions, but they denied that any policy changes were involved. They said the American diplomat would still be talking to the Soviet official on the basis that they were sounding out the possibility of negotiations. The first round of talks was described in diplomatic circles as a restatement of known positions. The talks were even-tempered, officials said. Washington officials at the week-end briefed Britain’s Lord Privy Seal (Mr Edward Heath) on the United States diplomatic moves in the Berlin crisis. Mr Heath had several hours of conferences with the Secretary of State (Mr Dean Rusk) and the Under Secretary of State (Mr George Ball), in a review of economic and political issues in the world. Informed sources in Washington said that Mr Thompson had been encouraged enough to seek another meeting with Mr Gromyko and that it was likely to take place within a few days The new instructions for him were reported to have been prepared personally by President Kennedy after consultations with Britain, West Germany and France.

Officials denied that the move meant the United States was willing to settle for less than its known position in the East-West crisis.

The “Washington Post” reported today that Mr Thompson, in the forthcoming talks, would aim at achieving a limited agreement tn the crisis. The newspaper said the United States and Britain saw some glimmers of hope, while France and West Germany took a negative view of the first Thompson-Gromyko talk. Clay Returning Mr Kennedy’s special representative in West Berlin (General Lucius Clay) was returning there tonight after a week-end visit to Washington for conferences with the President and other United States officials. The President issued a statement after their White House conference yesterday saying that he and General Clay agreed on future policy reaction to any crisis in the divided city. There had been earlier reports that General Clay disagreed on policy with Mr Rusk, and was dissatisfied with the authority the United States officials in Berlin had to deal with border moves provoked by the Communists. On Saturday, before seeing President Kennedy, the General had a 90-minute conference with Mr Rusk and the two men later jointly denied there was any basic policy difference between them.