WEST’S REPLY PREPARED

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29747, 14 February 1962, Page 13

WEST’S REPLY PREPARED

Summit Proposal Not Favoured (N 2 .P.A.- Reuter— Copyright) WASHINGTON, February 13. The Western Powers are preparing a message to the Soviet Prime Minister which is expected to reject Mr Khrushchev’s proposal for an 18-nation summit conference next month. The possibility of a later top-level gathering is expected to be suggested in the reply being prepared by the United States in consultations with its allies. The U.S. Secretary of State (Mr Dean Rusk) indicated last night what President Kennedy’s response to Mr Khrushchev would be when he said he did not believe the kind of disarmament negotiations now required could - best be carried on at the summit level.

But Mr Rusk did not shut the door on the possibility of a summit meeting at some later stage in the disarmament talks. Problems dividing East and West “ought to be explored first through other channels with a possibility that Heads of Government may be able then to remove

any remaining points of difference or put their final conclusions into operation,” Mr Rusk said in a broadcast interview.

His remarks came at the end of a day of intensive diplomatic consultations on Mr Khrushchev’s proposal

that the 18-nation disarmament conference meeting in Geneva on March 14 should open at the Heads of Government level. Ambassador’s Comment

Mr Rusk’s first appointment at the State Department was with the British Ambassador (Sir David Ormsby Gore), who later told reporters he did not think it would be suitable to open the disarmament negotiations with a summit conference, although such a meeting might be held "at a later date."

Later in the day Mr Rusk saw the Ambassadors of Brazil and Mexico, two nations represented on the 18-nation disarmament group. During the afternoon the Under-Secretary of State <Mr George Ball) conferred with the British. French and Italian Ambassadors and the Canadian Charge d’Affaires. The two top State Department officials were believed to have told the Ambassadors that the United States would not agree to the Soviet proposal for a summit meeting next month, although it would be prepared to look favourably at a later meeting of Heads of Government. United States reluctance to enter a summit conference without some definite prospects of progress were voiced by Mr Rusk, who said there were “considerable dangers and disadvantages if a summit meets and ends in disagreement and an increase in tensions ”

The Secretary of State also mentioned the technical difficulties of an 18-nation summit meeting which, it was estimed. would take about two weeks to get through statements in the general debate There was no immediate indication of when the President’s reply to Mr Khrushchev would be sent, but the White House spokesman (Mr Pierre Salinger) told reporters last night it would be “soon ”

Yesterday, the White House made public a joint letter by President Kennedy and

Mr. Macmillan to Mr Khrushchev sent last Wednesday, proposing that “we three accept a personal responsibility” for directing the forthcoming Geneva disarmament negotiations. “We are convinced that a supreme effort must be made and the three of us must accept a common measure of personal obligation to seek every avenue to restrain and reverse the mounting arms race.” the letter said. “Unless some means can be found to make at least a start in controlling the quickening arms competition, events may take their own course and erupt in a disaster which will affect all the peoples, those of the Soviet Union as well as of the United Kingdom and the United States.”

It was in reply to this letter that Mr Khrushchev proposed in his message received by President Kennedy that the disarmament negotiations in Geneva be turned mto a summit conference.

In their letter to Mr Khrushchev, the President and Mr Macmillan said: “It should be clear to all of us that we can no longer afford to take a passive view of these (disarmament) negotiations. They must not be allowed to drift into failure

“Accordingly, we propose that we three accept a personal responsibility for directing the part to be played by our representatives in the forthcoming talks, and that we agree beforehand that our representatives will remain at the conference table until concrete results have been achieved, however long this may take.” Symbol of Importance The President and the Prime Minister told Mr Khrushchev that, as a symbol of the importance which they attached to the disarmament negotiations, they oroposed that “we be represented at the outset of the disarmament conference by the Foreign Ministers of our •hree countries” They said they assumed the Foreign Ministers of the other 15 States involved would also wish to attend The President and the Prime Minister suggested that, in order to give impetus to the opening of the disarmament negotiations, ’he Foreien Ministers of the United States. Britain, and 'he Soviet Union coAvene in Geneva in advance of the beginning of the disarmament conference “to concert our plans ” The British and American leaders said in a joint statement last Thursday they had oroposed that the three Foreign Ministers should meet in what was generally interpreted to be a supreme effort to try to break the 'hree-year-old deadlock on the question ot a nuclear test ban agreement.

Neither Thursday’s statement nor the text of the British and American letter proposed specifically that the three foreign Ministers confer on the nuclear test issue