GERMANY’S LOOT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21830, 28 September 1945, Page 3

GERMANY’S LOOT

RESTITUTION PLAN

BIG FIVE DISCUSSION

CONFERENCE NEAR END

(11 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 27. The restitution of Allied property stolen by the Germans was the principal subject of the Foreign Ministers’ conference in London, the second last sitting of the present session. Although the conference will end to-morrow and the Foreign Ministers will return to their countries, their deputies will remain and continue the discussions.

The Foreign Ministers will meet again towards the end of November.

Delegates at the Foreign Ministers’ Council were depressed when they dispersed for lunch, says The Times's diplomatic correspondent. He added that the present session will soon be over. Consequently every hour spent on minor points makes it more probable that the main subjects, including Germany and Japan, will not be discussed properly. The council will be unable to revert to the Balkans in which the real argument will begin. It so far has been chiefly waged with the council between Russia on one side and Britain and America on the other.

Not Good Augury

Behind the immediate question at issue—whether the Rumanian, Bulgarian and Hungarian regimes are democratic —far wider considerations have been brought to bear. The British and Americans believe they are faced with the establishment of a very nearly exclusive bloc which is not a good augury for co-operation elsewhere, although co-operation will still be sought and offered.

The correspondent adds: “It is quite certain that so long as there is no common language about the Balkans the misunderstandings will widen and rival claims in the Mediterranean and elsewhere will tend to be considered in terms of Power politics. It appears at present that the session will end with an agreement on only minor matters.”

The correspondent says there is little prospect of the first part of Dr. Evatt's request—that active belligerents should be given the right to participation at the council table on a footing of equality—will be conceded. The United Kingdom must fit in with the wishes of the other Powers, some of which are unlikely to agree to a wider council. Greater Possibilities The second part of Dr. Evatt’s request—that the council's conclusions should be discussed freely by a conference of all active belligerents—has greater possibilities. The Potsdam declaration already goes a long way to meet it, having stated that the council, when considering a particular problem, may convoke a formal conference of the chiefiy interested States. The Dominions’ grounds for complaint would partly disappear if this procedure were adopted more freely, yet it is clear that the Potsdam declaration would not fully meet the Dominions’ case. Britain has been eager for them to be brought into full discussion as soon as possible, but again she cannot decide alone. The formal conference which the Potsdam declaration envisaged must await the consent of the other council Powers.

The Moscow paper Izvestia says the spotlight of attention on the meeting of Foreign Ministers has been focussed on the Governments of Rumania, Bulgaria and Hungary in an attempt to distract public attention from Greece, where the will of’the majority is being trampled down. It is not with securing rights for the supporters and accomplices of fascism that democracy must concern herself.