16-NATION TALKS OPEN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22587, 16 March 1948, Page 5

16-NATION TALKS OPEN

APPLICANTS FOR DOLLAR AID FOOD AND RAW MATERIALS VITAL MR. BEVIN STRIKES A HOPEFUL NOTE {N.Z.P.A. —Reuter —Copyright.) (11 a.m.) LONDON, March 15. The British Foreign Secretary, Mr. Ernest Bevin, opened the conference in Paris this afternoon of 16 nations who will receive United States aid under the Marshall Plan.

Mr. Bevin said that Britain was willing to participate in permanent machinery for European economic co-operation.

No Ground For Conflict The traditional friendship between the United Kingdom and other British Commonwealth countries 'would be maintained, however. The British Government could not see any ground for conflict in that field.

ing organisation." This organisation would seek the following objectives: 1. To build up European production and exports. 2. Reduce the dollar deficit.

3. Reduce European trade barriers and suggest improved clearing arrangements within Europe. 4. Promote European economic and social well-being.

Mr. Bevin staid that Britain and France would propose that the three Western German zones should be associated with the plan. Mr. Bevin added that if Germany was associated with the plan, Germany’s products and markets would help European recovery. Germany Must Take Place

Mr. Bevin said that two wars had meant for Europe nearly 30 years of struggle, interwoven with economic disorder. They would not have been doing their duty if they had refused to give a constructive answer to the United States offer of aid. While the Marshall Plan aid had been the subject of long investigation and protracted debate in the United States the 16 European nations attending the conference had been striving to lay the foundations of recovery. They had many handicaps and difficulties to surmount, but he was more hopeful now than at any time during or since the war. ■ The progress report to the conference emphasises that we cannot prevent the deterioration of our economics unless we obtain in the near future food and raw materials from the dollar areas,” he said. Mr. Bevin said the conference would establish what he called "the continu-

M. Bidault, France, addressing the conference, said that Europe, for the time being, was reduced to 16 countries, but he again invited Eastern Europe to collaborate in European reconstruction.

He said that Germany must take her place in the universe to be rebuilt, but at present she must be represented at the conference by the delegates of the Allied occupation commanders. "The resources of this industrious, persevering nation should be associated with the reconstruction we have undertaken,” he said.

According to Reuter messages from Frankfurt Western German observers i are waiting “with their bags packed” ready for an official invitation to attend the conference. Invitations to the Germans and to the British. American and French occupation authorities are confidently expected and the delegates are reported to be already chosen. The Associated Press correspondent at Frankfurt reports that the French occupation authorities announced that German representatives from the French zone would take part in the conference. Unhampered Flow of Goods Reuter’s correspondent in Paris says it is learned that the re-establishment of a regular, unhampered flow of goods among the European countries and acceleration of production will be the main points which the "Benelux" countries will make at the conference. They base their argument on six months’ experience of the working of the agreement on payments which they reached with France and Italy during the first Marshall Plan conference in Paris last summer.

This established a clearing arrangement for the five countries through the Bank of International Settlements in Berne.

A high Belgian official said it was found that the clearing agreement had the effect of “multiplying by five.” For example, if under the Marshall Plan one of the five countries received £250000 and put it into circulation in the form of goods, this amount, when it completed the circuit to the country which initially used it, would have been used five times and financed £1,250.000 worth of trade, “Benelux” officials will urge that this agreement should be extended to become a European clearing houses —in fact the instrument for the application of the Marshall Plan. Two events—the formation of the Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) and the Communist coup in Czechoslavakia —have occurred since 16 Marshall Plan nations first met in July ancl have intensified the feeling of urgency for speedy economic unity among the Western European democratic nations, says the Daily Telegraph’s diplomatic correspondent. The French delegation at the conference, after consultation with Britain, is to suggest that the proposed permanent organisation to supervise the economic recovery of Western Europe shall fix each year an annual economic programme based on the national programmes of the participating countries. It is also proposed that this 16-nation organisation would also undertake to “repudiate all autarchic measures, facilitate trade between themselves, practice close co-operation and progressively abandon export restrictions between themselves." Mr. Ernest Bevin, as he left London for the conference, said: “I am a born optimist.” The Daily Express, in a leader, cast doubt on the wisdom of Britain allying herself with Italy which “may be Communist after the elections on April 16” and France which “stands under the shadow of an authoritarian regime and where there may be civil war.” The Daily Express concluded: “Mr. Bevin is in Paris today. He will be in Brussels on Wednesday. Mr. Bevin should visit the Empire.”

The British and other Western Powers’ Ministers agree that with the opening of the Marshall Plan conference. Western Europe is entering its most critical month sines the Armistice, says The Times’ diplomatic correspondent. The month will end with the Italian elections in the middle of April. What happens within that period will decide whether western security and reconstruction can be based on firm foundations.

The Communists, knowing that, will redouble their efforts to create confusion and make the Marshall Plan ineffective.

The correspondent adds that a Communist majority in the Italian elections would be one of Russia’s greatest gains since the war, but the latest reports indicate that a Communist success is unlikely. The French Foreign Minister. M. Bidault, yesterday received the Greek Foreign Minister, M. Tsaldaris, and the Turkish Foreign Minister, M. Sadak. The Italian Foreign Minister, Count Sforza, raid on the Paris express: "It is high time to realise that our major duty is to organise Europe.” The conference will devote the first two days primarily to policy statements and the next two or three days’ work will be at a high official level when the conference will set up and frame the terms of reference for the working party which will draft the constitution for a continuing organisation of participating Powers. The working party also will draw up a multilateral agreement pledging continued economic co-opcration. It is expected that its work will take three or four weeks. The conference will discuss the extent and method of German representation at future meetings of co-operation committees.