FALSE CHARGES AGAINST BRITAIN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22513, 17 December 1947, Page 7

FALSE CHARGES AGAINST BRITAIN

/ Mr. Bevin presided at the “showlewn” session which was the longest ti the present conference. , M. Molotov made a new proposal kbout Austria—suggesting that Russia lake two-thirds of Eastern Austria’s oil production instead of the 90 per cent aow claimed as a German asset. This was passed to the deputies. M. Molotov also proposed that the : Big Four hear delegates from the “German People’s Congress” in Berlin. The other Ministers rejected this idea. M. Bidault maintained that the Berlin congress did not represent the Ger- ' Ban nation. ... M. Molotov declared that the demand for reparations had been inexplicably •blocked. He proposed that the Soviet reparations proposals should be contidered paragraph by paragraph. Mr. Bevin said he felt that a new situation had arisen. "My country, among others, has been falsely accused, for a propaganda purpose, of taking things out of Germany. That is quite untrue. We have spent liberally from our own resources. Britons have had to go without food so that food might be distributed in Germany because German unity was not established in accordance with the Potsdam agreement,” - ■ Mr. Bevin, referring to Austria, said: ,"We agreed a year ago to re-establish Austria as a sovereign Independent State. We still have not a treaty. Must Austria, which is a nation of 7,000,000, - wait until the nations of 200,000,000 reveal their claims? This is making a mockery of the declaration signed in Moscow four years ago” Mr. Bevin listed a number of subjects, including the Saar frontiers and the first charges on Germany’s foreign ex-

change resources on which the Ministers could not get an answer from the Soviet delegation. He denied that the British Government, either at Yalta or Potsdam, had committed itself to claims for reparations from current production. “I can only conclude that this constant attack on us is purely political,” he said. “We still ask for an answer whether the acquisition of German enterprises will be liquidated. We want a democratic* Germany, not a bogus democracy where a few men exercise tyranical power. We want a central and not a centralised German Government whi/i can become a dictatorship. We don’t want a puppet Government.” M. Molotov said it was clear that Mr. Bevin and Mr. Marshall were acting to one plan. Mr. Marshall’s adjournment suggestion was a decision to act in the same unilateral manner as on several previous occasions. "The Soviet Government cannot be spoken to the same as the present Greek Government,” he declared.

Mr. Marshall said: “I hope when we meet again it will be in an atmosphere more conducive to the settlement of differences.”

M. Bidault: “I agree.” M. Molotov said “I have no remark.” Mr. Bevin: “We have got to be unanimous or we will set here forever.” M. Molotov: “I have no remarks and no objections.” There was silence when Mr. Bevin asked for any suggestions about the time or place of the next meeting. Mr. Bevin thanked the delegates for attending and said he hoped they would meet in a better atmosphere. The three other delegates briefly thanked him for the British hospitality and so the conference ended.