DISAGREE ON ALL ITALIAN TOPICS

Northern Advocate, 26 June 1946, Page 5

DISAGREE ON ALL ITALIAN TOPICS

(Received 1 p.m.)

LONDON, June 25

THE Foreign Ministers, after a two and a half hours’ meeting, failed to agree on any of the minor points of the Italian draft treaty which was on the agenda, says Reuter’s Paris correspondent.

Mr Bevin, at one stage, is reported to have declared: “The way we are going on now seems almost farcical. It really makes no difference to me what subject

we discuss

Mr Bevin made this comment during the first 40 minutes, which were devoted to talking about what subjects should be discussed. He previously tried unsuccessfully to get M. Molotov’s agreement to a settlement of the Dodecanese question once and for all. The Ministers last month agreed in principle to give the Dodecanese to Greece, but M. Molotov still is delaying his final decision. COLONIAL QUESTIONS

During the general discussion M. Molotov 7 suddenly intimated that he would like the Italian colonial question speeded up. Mr Bevin pointed out that his impression was it war the Russian delegation which asked for postponement of this question. The Ministers, however, agreed that the special colonies committee, which so far has not met, should convene tomorrow.

The Ministers, after failing to agree on the expropriation clause of the Italian draft treaty, decided to refer back to heir deputies the question ol' arbitration procedure. M. Molotov cut short the discussion and moved the adjournment when Mr Byrnes again attempted to get the FraneoItalian frontier question settleuV ~~ M. Molotov proposed that the Ministers should resume discussion on the freedom of navigation of the Danube but Mr Byrnes insisted that they adhere to the agenda, which consisted of a number of points in the Italian treaty on which the deputies previously disagreed. The Ministers will meet again tomorrow. POSSIBLE POSTPONEMENT The Paris correspondent of The Times says that unless several quite unexpected concessions are made, the Ministers are likely to close’ their examination of Italian and Balkan treaties on June 28 without agreement. There are many more grounds for uneasiness than was hoped and several members of the delegations now believe that agreement on Trieste and Venezia Giulia is impossible this session unless the Ministers decide to postpone the question for a year or more.

At present this is no more than a vague suggestion but it is heard on many sides and the Ministers, in default of anything better, may have to accept it as the final solution.