VERY USEFUL PROGRESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26981, 17 January 1949, Page 5

VERY USEFUL PROGRESS

WORLD PROBLEMS DISCUSSED

BRITISH AND FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTERS

NZPA—Reuter—Copyright

Rec. 8 pm. LONDON, Jan. 14. There are no longer any basic differences between Britain and France on German problems, said the French Foreign Minister, M. Robert Schumann, at a press conference to-day. He said his two-day talks with Mr Ernest Bevin, the British Foreign Secretary, could serve “as a model for what such meetings ought to be-” M. Schumann said that next week’s conference in London between Britain, France and the United States on the statute for Western Ger"many could be awaited without any anxiety since it was especially on this subject that the British and French standpoints had drawn so much closer together. They were now separated only by “ nuances.” M. Schumann said: ‘‘Mr Bevin and I felt the necessity of meeting tete a tete outside the conference room so we could talk with less reticence and more frankness. We have made, very useful progress on all problems which are now current in the international field- We have made a complete tour of the world’s problems, leaving nothing out. We have made more progress than I thought possible, and we are much more in agreement than J could have believed." M. Schumann said he felt that he had never been present at a meeting of foreign statesmen where he had met so much friendliness and such a desire for understanding. He added: ‘‘ We have not plotted against the absentees.” He and Mr Bevin had concentrated on discussing the actual problems which will shortly i confront Britain and France within the framework of the Brussels Pact and in the United Nations. M. Schumann said they had also discussed the admission of Italy to various Western groupings and the problem of the disposal of Italy’s former colonies. M. Schumann said the Western Powers were faced with the broad problem in the Far East of fixing their attitude towards two new factors of Communism and Nationalism. He and Mr Bevin had agreed that the British and French attitudes could not be entirely negative. He said there were “ new factors ” in the last 24 hours of which Mr Bevin had informed him, and which he hoped would be helpful towards a solution in the Far East. The official communique at the conclusion of the talks between M- Schumann and Mr Bevin said the conversations had enabled the two Ministers “ to have a detailed exchange of views on all current international problems affecting the two Governments, particularly Germany, the European Union, the Atlantic Pact, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, South-east Asia and the Far East.”