AMERICAN PLEA

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22306, 16 April 1947, Page 5

AMERICAN PLEA

4Q-YEAR_JREATY CURB ON GERMANY RUSSIA'S ATTITUDE MOSCOW, April 14. At a meeting of the Foreign Ministers’ Council to-day, Mr. George Marshall, United States, proposed that the council immediately appoint plenipotentiaries to negotiate promptly a four-Power Treaty to curb German aggresison for 40 years on the lines of Mr. James Byrnes’ plan. fi He also proposed that any prohibitions in the proposed treaty should be included in the peace treaty in order lo bind the German State and become the law of the land. Time Come to Decide Mr. Marshall said there had been ample time for reflection. The time had now come for the three other Allied Powers to decide whether or not .they wanted a four-Power treaty to keep Germany disarmed. He did not at the moment ask- for any consideration of the text. He suggested that the treaty should provide for a periodic review of its terms and for its adaptation to the eventual peace treaty. M. Bidault, France, replying, said he was happy to welcome and accept the suggestion. He emphasised that a pact would not be enough. France would insist on special regimes for the Ruhr and Rhineland and their separation from Germany as a supplement to the disarmament treaty. Mr. Ernest Bevin, Britain, also welcomed the proposed four-Power treaty. He said that such a treaty would have prevented the Second World War. M. Molotov proposed a series of additions and amendments. He wanted such points as denazification, fourPower control of the Ruhr, destruction of cartels and the control of factories by States included as well as demilitarisation. Although M. Molotov did not reply to the specific proposal that the council appoint plenipotentiaries, official sources said the fact that he proposed amendments indicated Russian approval of the treaty in principle. Peace Treaty Procedure Mr. Marshall circulated a memorandum clearing up the points of procedure on the peace treaty which the other Foreign Ministers raised. America originally proposed that all States at war with Germany should have full and equal rights at the peace conference The memorandum stated that America now agreed, first, that the conference recommendations decided by either two-thirds or a simple majority vote should not only require the majority of ail States present and voting, but also of those which were neighbours of Germany or participated with the armed forces in the war; secondly, that the Foreign Ministers should consider the recommendations based on either type of vote when they drew up the final peace treaty. The memorandum added however that the recommendations passed by a twothirds majority should carry greater weight than simple majority recommendations, and the council was not bound to accept either. Mr. Marshall also said he agreed to German Governments signing the treaty in addition to his original proposal that acknowledgment of the treaty should be placed in the constitution.