Bonn and Warsaw initial treaty

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32459, 20 November 1970, Page 13

Bonn and Warsaw initial treaty

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) WARSAW, Nov. 19. The West German Foreign Minister (Mr Walter Scheel) yesterday initialled a treaty under which Bonn recognises Poland’s post-war Western frontier.

He then immediately urged Warsaw to speed up emigration of German-bom Poles wanting to go to the Federal Republic.

Definitive acceptance of the frontier, which gave Poland large areas of former German territory, was Warsaw’s basic condition throughout 10 months of exchanges on a pact to put the two countries relations on a normal footing. Bonn negotiators sought return assurances of easier emigration for people wanting to join family members in West Germany. They were understood to have received satisfaction on this issue, although the Poles regarded it as exclusively an internal matter and not a subject for an international agreement.

The treaty, aimed at overcoming 25 years of bitterness caused by World War II wounds and post-war EastWest tensions, was initialled at noon in a small, white, nineteenth-century palace, where Mr Scheel and the Polish Foreign Minister (Mr Stafan Jedrychowski) reached final agreement on the text early last Saturday. West German official sources said that Chancellor Willy Brandt was likely to come to Poland in the second week of December for final signature of the treaty with the Polish Prime Minister (Mr Jozef Cyrankiewicz). In brief speeches after yesterday’s initialling ceremony both ministers said that they believed the accord would overcome difficulties of the past and open prospects of future friendly relations. But Mr Scheel warned that it would require a tough

struggle to win Parliamentary and public approval for the pact in West Germany. t He appealed to the Polish Government to aid this process by telling the Polish ■ people of its decision to norr malise relations, and to take . quick action on humanitarian , questions.