TALKS OPENING ON BERLIN

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29800, 17 April 1962, Page 15

TALKS OPENING ON BERLIN

Bonn Reported To Have Misgivings (N-Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, April 16. Soviet-American exploratory talks on Berlin were to resum e in Washington today with the West’s position shaken by signs of disunity. However, American officials last night expressed guarded optimism about the chances of finding a basis for worthwhile negotiations on the divided city.

The Soviet Ambassador (Mr Anatoly Dobrynin) was to confer with the Secretary of Stale (Mr Dean Rusk) in the first of a series of meetings.

The meetings are intended to expand the studies already carried out in New York and Washington last year and. more recently, in Moscow and Geneva.

The cautious optimism in American circles was dealt a sharp blow during the last 48 hours by the disclosure in

Bonn of details of a secret United States working paper on Berlin and indications that West Germany had misgivings about the American position in the renewed talks. The Bonn Government is understood to fear that East German participation in management of the access routes would imply limited recognition of the Communist East German regime. U.S. Assurance

But an assurance was given last night by the Under Secretary of State (Mr George Ball) that no new proposals would be submitted to the Russians which

did not have the approval of the West German Government.

Mr Ball, in a television interview. also denied that any direct recognition of East Germany would be involved

in granting East German participation in the proposed international authority. United States officials said last night that hopes for progress in the resumed talks centred on the idea of an international authority, which was first raised by President Kennedy in a meeting with Mr Alexei Adzhubei, editor of the Soviet newspaper “Isvestia” and a son-in-law of the Soviet Prime Minister iMr Khrushchev).

The Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Andrei Gromyko) brought up the matter again at his meetings with Mr Rusk in Geneva, though at that time the United States turned down the Soviet proposal because it was tied to previous demands for the withdrawal of Allied troops from West Berlin and the loss of occupation rights in the city. But the interest shown by the Russians in the idea of an international authority has generally been interpreted in Washington as the first hopeful sign that some basis might be found for an accommodation on Berlin. Issue on Agenda Officials said that Mr Rusk w'ould explore this aspect further in his meeting with Mr Dobrynin, as well as other proposals. These included the possibility of a non-aggression agreement between N.A.TO. and the Warsaw Pact, limited recognition of East Germany’s present frontiers, agreement to prevent the spread of nuclear arms and formation of East and West German technical committees.

All of these proposals had been presented to the Soviet Union in the past, officials said. While they had met with only a non-committal response from the - Russians, they had not been rejected out of hand.