ENDING THIS WEEK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22313, 24 April 1947, Page 5

ENDING THIS WEEK

BIG FOUR_MEETING AUSTRIAN TREATY NO SIGNS OF AGREEMENT MOSCOW. April 22. The Foreign Ministers’ Council adjourned its secret session in the afternoon after an inconclusive discussion on Austria It is believed that M. Molotov has not completely rejected the Western Powers’ views, but has left the deliberations hanging in the air. A Russian initiative would be needed to enable the Big Four to agree on Austria. It is announced that the Ministers will resume their discussion on Germany to-morrow. The Ministers earlier agreed that the United Nations’ Security Council should he;p Trieste financially to a maximum of £1.250.000. The conference is expected to end to-morrow or Thursday. Ending on Note of Failure After six weeks of discussions, the session of the Council of Foreign Ministers is ending without having resolved even one of the crucial matters that divide it, says the diplomatic correspondent of the Daily Telegraph in a message from Moscow. Obviously, continues the correspondent, there will be another Council of Foreign Ministers in some months’ time, but the situation may not be the same then. Mr. Marshall has surveyed the Council in the past six weeks almost in the manner of military reconnaissance, and now knows that because of fundamentally opposed aims co-operation with Russia is impossible. Something will have to be done, the correspondent says, and it is clear that the present merger of the British and American zones in Germany will have to be developed as a beginning. If Russia, as it is clear she does, has potential control of central Europe, Mr. Marshall and Mr. Bevin will have to do all they can to strengthen Germany and Austria against further Soviet penetration. Russian Intractability Tlie correspondent continues: “The tragedy of this session in Moscow is that it lias shown that the Soviet representatives were impervious to argument, and indeed, perhaps, sometimes unable to understand it. But the complicated proceedings of the council cannot be understood without grasping one basic point: that in all the discussions about Germany the aims of all the Powers are not the same. Communist Russia is determined to establish political domination of Germany and Austria and all M. Molotov's arguments on political structure, reparations, and so on are designed to further a policy directed to that aim. The Western Powers know this well enough, but of course they cannot say so in open conference.

“All the proceedings of the last six weeks have revolved around a few essential words and phrases, interrelated and interdependent. The real crux of the conference was the question of running Germany as an economic whole, as agreed by Mr. C. R. Attlee. M. Stalin, and President Truman in Potsdam in August, 1945. All the future political structure tor Germany, based substantially on the British plan, rested on the assumption that this must be agreed. There would have been no need for such an agreement 20 months after Potsdam was signed if Russia had adhered to the agreement which was made there. The Russians insisted, and still insist, that unless the others allow them to have reparations from German current production they will not agree—in fact, they agreed at Potsdam —to run Germany as an economic whole "The position of the western Powers, therefore, is that everything depends on the economic unity of Germany, on the fair sharing of the expenses and fruits of Germany by the four Allies during the occupation. The Russians say, "Give us a share in the fourPower control of the Ruhr —vital to Soviet political aims and £2,500,000,000 in reparations from German current production over 20 years, and we will see.” “Britain is not being pig-headed about reparations for the Russians, but the British say that until Germany’s exports pay for her imports and until she has repaid the money paid by the Allies, apart from Russia, to keep her alive, Germany shall not be called upon to pay reparations from current production. “The whole question is highly complicated because of one vital point. It is impossible to revive Germany to the point of producing in all £5,000,000,000 in reparations without making her the possessor of the biggest and most modern industrial and war potential in the world, apart from the United Stales. Explanation for Soviet Attitude “The fact that Russia is willing to lake such a gamble is variously explained by her present desperate needs and also by her possible use of any future German arsenal. Russia, as Germany's principal creditor —or master —would have a powerful weapon in forcing the future Germany into her political and military sphere. It has not been agreed, therefore, to survey the foundation of a new German structure. All else is mere scaffolding which may perhaps be wanted.” The correspondent also remarks that Russia does not want Mr. Byrnes’ fourPower draft treaty against revival of German aggression, and for one reason, at least: she wants to drive the United States out of Europe. She is striving to make the United States tire of her new European policy and retreat into isolation. To say that this's a considerable task is an understatement. Similarly, the conference produced no Austrian treaty of independence because Russia docs not want one, certainly not while she is still in Germany. The position is vastly important because for the first time Russia has been faced with an adamant and united Western opposition.