GERMAN AGGRESSION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26437, 16 April 1947, Page 5

GERMAN AGGRESSION

PREVENTION BY TREATY AMERICAN PROPOSAL AT MOSCOW MOSCOW, Apl. 14. At the Foreign Ministers’ Council to-day Mr Marshall proposed that the council immediately appoint plenipotentiaries to negotiate promptly a fourPower treaty to curb German aggression for 40 years on the lines of the Byrnes plan. He also proposed that any prohibitions in the proposed treaty should be included in the peace treaty in order to bind the German State and become the law of the land. Mr Marshall said there had been ample time for reflection. The time had now come for the three other Allied Powers to decide whether or not they wanted a four-Power treaty to keep Germany disarmed. He did not at the moment ask for any consideration of the text. He suggested that the treaty should provide for a periodic review of its terms and for adaptation to the eventual peace treaty. M. Bidault, replying, said he was happy to welcome and accept the suggestion. He emphasised that a pact would not be enough. France would insist on special regimes for the Ruhr and the Rhineland and their separation from Germany as a supplement to the disarmament treaty. Mr Bevin also welcomed the proposed four-Power treaty. He said such a treaty would have prevented World War 11. , , Mr Molotov proposed a series of additions and amendments. He wanted such points as denazification, fourPower control of the Ruhr, destruction of cartels, and control of factories by States included, as well as demilitarisation. Although Mr Molotov did not reply to the specific proposal that the council appoint plenipotentiaries, official sources said the fact that he proposed the amendments indicated Russian approval of the treaty in principle.