PEACE CONFERENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26197, 6 July 1946, Page 7

PEACE CONFERENCE

DEFINITE DATE FIXED OPENING ON JULY 29 LONDON, July 4. A full-dress peace conference of 21 Allied nations will begin in Paris on July 29. The “ Big Four ” Foreign Ministers decided this to-night. Mr Molotov had earlier declared that he would not agree to fix the peace conference date until an agreement was reached on Italian reparations, but it was later revealed that he accepted Mr Byrnes's compromise proposals. Mr Byrnes’s compromise proposals provided for payment by goods worth £25,000,000 from the following sources: 1. The sharing of factory and tool equipment designed for the manufacture of war implements. 2. Any Italian assets in the Soviet Union.

3. The Italian Government's property, rights, and interests and the interests of Italian nationals in Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Russian zone of Germany. 4. The Italian ships, Saturno and Volcania, which are to be refitted in Italy at the Italian Government’s expense. 5. The delivery of the balance in goods making up the < £25,000,000 to start within three years of the creation of the treaty and to be completed within six years. Reuter's correspondent says that the fifth condition represents a concession to the principle which Mr Molotov had sought throughout the Italian reparations discussions—that Italy should pay reparations to Russia from current production.