"NOT ENTHUSIASTIC"

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXVI, Issue 27, 31 December 1945, Page 5

"NOT ENTHUSIASTIC"

FRENCH ATTITUDE ASKED (N./5; Press Association. —Copyright.) (Rec. 11.15 a.m.) PARIS, Dep. 30. The questions which France is putting to Britain, America, and Russia concern principally the procedure proposed at the European Peace Conference of 21 United Nations, says the Times correspondent. France wants to know whether the "Big Three" Powers regard themselves as a committee preparing recommendations for a free assembly of sovereign nations or as a sort of Government referring proposals as a matter of form to a merely consultative body. The French Government believes that in raising these points it is acting in the interests of all nations other than the "Big Three." The French outlook is not optimistic that the Government will submit, because there is no alternative if the answers are disappointing, but considers that it will protest and probably refuse to allow the Conference to be held in Paris.

The correspondent adds that French official circles are not enthusiastic about the Moscow results generallyThey believe that the United States, by a tactical retreat, resolved the deadlock which broke the London Conference, but they do not see what positive gains counter-balance the retreat, which they fear may have grave future consequences.