GERMAN PEACE TREATY

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 February 1947, Page 5

GERMAN PEACE TREATY

BRITISH VIEWS ON DRAFT PROCEDURE FOREIGN MINISTERS’ ROLE LONDON, Feb. 12. Britain’s .statement on the German treaty, which was submitted to the Foreign Ministers’ deputies to-day, proposed that the deputies should hear the views of Allied belligerent or co-belligerent States and provide these States with documents so that they could join in discussing matters of direct interest to them. The deputies should form an information and consultative committee to maintain liaison with the Allied States and appoint committees to consider particular questions raised by the Allied States. The Foreign Ministers, when agreed on' the general lines of the treaty, should call a conference of the allied States to discuss the draft, and if any German government adequate for the purpose existed, its representatives should also be invited. In any event, representatives of Germany should be invited to express their views before any treaty is signed. Mr. Gusev (Russia) interrogated Sir William Strang (Britain) on the British submissions. He asked whether the conference to be called when the Foreign Ministers had completed their draft would be for the purpose of drafting the final treaty. He suggested that if this was so, the drafting would take several years. Sir William Strang replied that the Foreign Ministers should have completed most of the work before the conference, but they should not complete the details of the treaty until they had heard the views of the conference. REVISION OFTREATY WITH ITALY LONDON, Feb. 12. The British Government has told the Italian Government that it is prepared to consider any reasonable suggestions that the Italian Government might make about revising the conditions in the Italian peace treaty which affect only Britain and Italy, says Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent. He points out that revision of the treaty’s clauses would essentially be a matter for the Big Four, but where the treaty confers certain rights on one individual Power there is nothing to prevent negotiations for modification between that Power and Italy.