TWENTY-ONE NATIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 July 1946, Page 7

TWENTY-ONE NATIONS

DELEGATES ASSEMBLE FOR CONFERENCE PRELIMINARIES TO TALKS LONDON, July 29. When the Peace Conference’of 21 nations opens in the Luxembourg Palace in Paris to-day, M. Bidault will welcome the delegate on behalf of France. The British Prime Minister (Mr. Attlee) and the United States Secretary of State (Mf. James Byrnes) are expected to reply. Correspondents in Paris expect that the presidency of the conference will be taken in turn by the leaders of the delegations of the Big Five Britain, the United States, Russia, France, and China. . . , According to the provisional agenda, the conference will first appoint committees. These will include a credentials committee, one of whose tasks will be to decide the status of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, now republics in the Soviet Union. It may not be till next Monday before the conference gets down to its main agenda. It will then split up into five commissions, each of which will deal with the peace treaty for one of five former enemy States.— Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania, and Finland. The deputies of the Big Four Foreign Ministers are expected to meet to-day to clear up the confusion which has arisen about publication of the draft peace treaties. There are about 2000 official visitois to Paris, comprising the delegations and their advisers and clerical staffs.

Release of Treaty Drafts. “Soon after Mr. Attlee arrived in Paris he and Mr. Byrnes met, at Mr. Byrnes’s request, to discuss the Palestine problem and the muddle about publication of the draft treaties,” reported Reuter’s-Paris correspondent on Sunday. “The meeting was held at Mr. Attlee’s hotel and lasted one and a half hours. No statement was issued afterwards, but according to American sources Mr. Byrnes sought to ovei - come British objections to publishing the whole text of the proposed treaties, including clauses on which there is still disagreement. “Mr. Byrnes, before meeting Mr. Attlee, consulted one of the American delegates who recently participated in the British-American negotiations on Palestine, which are reported to have developed a partition plan. “Mr. Byrnes, at a press conference, said he hoped that the peace treaties with the five former enemy nations would be signed immediately after the Paris Conference. He would try to convene the Foreign Ministers’ Council as soon as possible after the conference, to consider its recommendations. The United States, at the Paris Conference, would support the agreements reached by the Foreign Ministers, but reserved the right to consider on its merits any supplementary or new proposal. “Mr. Byrnes said the United States favoured giving a hearing to all interested nations and former enemy States, but would stand by the Moscow agreement limiting the conference to the 21 invited nations. . Mr. Byrnes, summing up his view of* the conference, said it was not as good a peace-making formula as he had hoped to get in London, but it was still far better than that after the last war, when the little nations were simply asked to sign on the dotted line the treaties prepared by the Big Powers.”

Ban on Publication

“As a result, of the confusion about the release of the draft peace treaties, sections of the Italian treaty were published in some parts of the world, including one Italian city,” reported Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent on Sunday. , “The Allies banned publication oi the draft trfeaty with Italy just as the Ansa (Italian) News Agency . was about to distribute it. It is believed that Russia pressed for the publication of some, though not all, of the alternative clauses. The United States is willing to publish the treaties as a whole, but does not favour making a selection among the alternative clauses.”

“It was announced after a meeting of the Big Four Foreign Ministers’ deputies that the drafts of the peace treaties would on Monday morning be handed to representatives of the 17 Powers who were not included in the Big Four Council, for publication on Tuesday morning. Mr. Byrnes said he was making every effort to get the

treaties released before the conference opens. “Another puzzle is afforded by reports from Paris about the meeting of the Drafting Committee on Saturday night, which covered only four treaties, omitting to mention the Bulgarian treaty and thus strengthening the suggestion that Russia will support the Bulgarian claim for access to the Aegean Sea, which is opposed, by Greece and the Western Powers. The correspondent added: “The conference will deal neither with Germany, Austria, nor Japan. The Moscow Foreign Ministers’ Conference last September laid down that altei consideration by the 21 nations the five peace treaties would be returner for final ratification to those of the Big Four who were signatories of the armistice with the enemy countries concerned. , . ~ “The smaller Powers, basing themselves on the Atlantic and United Nations Charters, are expected to approach the peace settlement from a more idealistic standpoint than the Big Four. Only the conference itself will show just how far they are ready to press for a reversaPof major decisions, which in some cases will unquestionably result in power politics rather than realisation of the United Nations ideals. The first clue as to whether a challenge is likely to come from the smaller Powers will come early when the rules of procedure aie discussed. Work of “Big Four.” “On the other hand, some Allied Powers which hitherto have had no opportunity of taking a direct part in the shaping of the peace settlement will probably make both general ana detailed criticism of the work of the Big Four.” The fate of Germany would be aecided at the Paris Conference, said the French Foreign Minister (M. Bidault', in a speech at a resistance rally. France would approve measures to constitute a basis for a central government for Germany with jurisdiction over German territory, excluding the Saar, but she believed that all such measures were contrary to the interests of peace and security if they were introduced before German territory was defined and before the organisation of Germany was determined. BRITISH CHURCHMEN CALL FOR PRAYERS . LONDON, July 28. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. G. F. Fisher), the Archbishop of Westminster (Cardinal Griffin), the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (Dr. John McKenzie), and the Moderator of the Free Church Federal Council (the Rev. Frank Ballard) have sent a joint letter to The Times calling for people to pray for the guidance of the statesmen at the Peace Conference.