BELATED CONDITIONS RAISED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26198, 8 July 1946, Page 5

BELATED CONDITIONS RAISED

Discussion Over Invitations (Bee. 10 p.m.) LONDON, July 7. The Foreign Ministers, after a discussion lasting five hours, again failed to agree on the form of the invitations for the Peace Conference, says Reuter’s Paris correspondent. There is also a continued stalemate over the question whether China should be regarded as one of the sponsoring Powers. The Ministers will meet again to-morrow.

Mr Bevin, during the discussion, said the Ministers agreed to call the Peace Conference on July 29 without any conditions, but Mr Molotov is now virtually going back on his agreement. He is reported to have refused to consent to the issuance of invitations until the rules of procedure are laid down by the “ Big Four.” Mr Byrnes and Mr Bevin heatedly insisted that they had no power to draw up rules for the conference. Mr Byrnes said no self-respecting representative to any international conference could accept such dictation. He declared he would not even discuss rules of procedure unless it was clearly understood that such rules would be merely suggestions and in no way binding on either the Peace Conference or the United States Government.

Agency correspondents describe the debate as bitter and heated. A dispute arose when Mr Molotov criticised a suggestion by M. Bidault for the formation for a general commission comprised of the heads of the 21 delegations to the Peace Conference to prepare the work for the plenary conference.

Mr Molotov said this would mean the Peace Conference would become merely “ a rubber stamping machine.”