DISARMAMENT TALKS

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29765, 7 March 1962, Page 13

DISARMAMENT TALKS

Western Plan Accepted (N Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 6. President Kennedy is likely to reply today to Mr Khrushchev’s latest letter on disarmament and nuclear tests, according to officials. The Soviet Prime Minister’s letter to the President was reported to have been on the lines of his message to the British Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan), agreeing to open the Geneva disarmament talks at the Foreign Ministers’ level on March 14 and to talk about a nuclear test treaty in advance. Officials said they were not at liberty to discuss Mr Khrushchev’s letter, but said he had notified the President that the Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Gromyko) would attend the Geneva talks.

They said he also referred to Mr Kennedy’s announcement that the United States would resume atmospheric nuclear testing in late April unless the Soviet Union agreed to sign an effective test ban treaty by that time.

Officials saw Mr Khrushchev’s letter to Mr Macmillan as an encouraging sign and an indication that the Soviet Prime Minister was making a serious approach to the coming Geneva talks. Mr Macmillan told the House of Commons that Mr Khrushchev had now accepted that the Geneva conference should start at foreign ministers’ level. Mr Macmillan said: “I have just received a Note from Mr Khrushchev stating that he is now broadly agreed to the procedure which President Kennedy and I proposed on February 8.” Mr Macmillan said the United States and Britain suggested the 18-Power conference should comprise in the first stage, the foreign ministers of the countries concerned. Mr Khrushchev had now accepted this. “He has also agreed that the foreign ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union should meet in Geneva, as we had proposed, a few days before the conference meets. Test Ban Treaty “I hope that the progress made will be such as to make it possible for President Kennedy and myself to meet Mr Khrushchev in Geneva to conclude the final stages of a treaty to ban nuclear tests.” The Labour leader, Mr Gaitskell asked if the West would put forward new suggestions on a nuclear test ban.

Mr Macmillan replied: “There is a -general sense that new hope may come from this new communication from Mr Khrushchev. We think thait the draft treaty of April, 1961, is a reasonable basis for discussion, but we are willing to consider any proposal that can help to make it acceptable. “We have already made such suggestions to the United States Government and they to us. The only thing necessary Is to adhere to the need for some system of international verification.” French Boycott

France last night announced officially that it would boycott the Geneva conference, the British United Press reported from Paris. An official statement said the Government had decided not to send representatives to the meeting, and would not be represented even by an observer, as had been expected

The statement said the French Government considered that "discussions within the framework of the commission do not permit even partial solutions of the problems to be expected." French Government officials said President de Gaulle’s decision to boycott the meeting stemmed from his belief that it would quickly deteriorate into a futile propaganda affair, British United Press reported Russian Claims The West could not ignore Russian claims of the military effects of Soviet nuclear tests Mr Macmillan said. It

had become increasingly clear that while these claims could be discounted to some extent "we cannot ignore them altogether. ”

“The Russians have certainly acquired from their tests much useful information on which further development is now being pressed forward,” he said. “The President and I have, therefore, been forced to the conclusion that we now face a potential threat to the deterrent power of the Western strategic armoury. “To wait until one was certain that the Russians had made significant advances in this, or any other field of nuclear development would be clearly to wait until it was too laite to restore the balance of the deterrent on which the defence of the free world rests.” The British leader said he thought they were iikely to get results from the Geneva meeting and “I very much hope that we shall.” The Labour leader (Mr Gaitskell) later asked the Prime Minister: “Supposing there is very real progress in the next two months towards an agreement, will, you use your influence with President Kennedy to defer a little longer the resumption of the tests?”

“Grim Dilemma”

Mr Macmillan said: “This is a grim dilemma we have had to face. I do not see how any President of the United States, who carries the main burden for the future defence of the West, or any British Government, could have reached any other conclusion. “There are still several weeks, nearly two months, before this programme of tests is due to begin.”

Mr Macmillan said the West’s call for foreign ministers to meet in Geneva before the disarmament conference next week was sincere.

Britain and the United States had urged such a meeting take place to lay the foundations of some arrangement to call a halt to the nuclear arms race. “This is not an ultimatum but a sincere and genuine appeal,” he said.

The British Foreign Secretary (Lord Home) is reported by authoritative sources to be thinking of a meeting in Geneva with his Soviet and American counterparts next Monday or Tuesday This would tie in with Moscow press reports suggesting that Mr Gromyko was prepared to meet the Western Foreign Ministers on Monday, two days before the conference opens.

The main task of the preliminary Foreign Ministers’ talks will be to give impetus to the conference to seek a way of resuming under its framework negotiations on a nuclear test ban. Officials in London believe there will also be side talks with the Soviet Foreign Minister about other topics, such as Berlin and Laos. But these may take place later, after the disarmament conference has begun. During the nine days that remain United States and British officials will be putting finishing touches to papers they have been working on about various aspects of disarmament.

One paper is believed to envisage a looser form Of supervision over a nuclear test ban, but London sources say there is not yet full and final agreement on this.