NO PROGRESS TOWARDS AGREEMENT ON GERMAN UNITY AT PARIS TALKS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27091, 27 May 1949, Page 5

NO PROGRESS TOWARDS AGREEMENT ON GERMAN UNITY AT PARIS TALKS

New Zealand Press Association—Copyright Rec. 8 p.m. LONDON, May 26. The Council of Foreign Ministers in its longest session since the conference opened in Paris on Monday, spent three and a-half hours yesterday discussing German unity. The Ministers made no progress towards agreement.

Mr Andrei Vyshinsky (Soviet) has so far failed to convince the three Western Foreign Ministers that the Soviet Government has any progressive policy to offer this conference, says the diplomatic correspondent of the Daily Mail cabling from Paris. It is conceded that .he may yet have a surprise plan, including of course the withdrawal of all occupation troops, which so far he has kept ell in the background. This apart, Western diplomats cannot understand why Mr Vyshinsky keeps demanding the restoration of Four-Power control at a time when in Western Germany there is developing an all-round relaxation in favour of increased German administrative authority. Western Zone Progress The continuing relaxation of controls in Western Germany was the theme of Mr Dean Acheson’s (United States) arguments last night, the correspondent points out. He emphasised the great progress that had been made in all aspects of German life under Western supervision and reiterated that there is no prospect of undoing all that has been done To this extent it must be said that this conference is now, approaching an impasse, the correspondent adds. Mr Ernest Bevin (Britain) told Mr Vyshinsky that the west would not agree* to any proposal which would take from the Germans the powers given them by the west in the occupation statute agreed on in Washington this spring. After the meeting, delegates said that all four Ministers spoke, but no decisions were taken. The United States foreign affairs expert, Mr John Foster Dulles, said that no new proposals had been made to-day.' “There was, however,” he said, “full and detailed discussion, too complicated to be summed up in a few words.”

It is learned that the Ministers limited themselves to statements of their general principles for German unity and to criticising each other’s standpoints. Mr Vyshinsky, speaking first as chairman, made a long legalistic reply to the Western Powers’ rejection of his proposal for a “return to Potsdam.” The three Western Foreign Ministers compared the achievements of the last 18 months towards German unity and independence with the situation which would be created if Mr Vyshinsky’s proposals were adopted. Mr Vyshinsky renewed the proposal he made yesterday for the return of Four-Power control in Germany. Soviet Reparations Claims Mr Acheson said that there were two conditions for economic unity: 1. The suspension of reparation payments in the Eastern zone. 2. Agreement on Soviet assets in the Eastern zone. Mr Acheson challenged Russia to give details of how she had helped her zone of Germany since the occupation began. He reminded Mr Vyshinsky that last year the United States poured nearly £300,000,000 into Germany to help recovery. “ But what has been done in the Russian zone? ’ he asked. “We have not been told anything.” Mr Acheson said the Western Allies had a three-point programme for Germany: 1. The reconstruction of Germany. 2. The increasing of the ‘output of goods for internal consumption to raise the people’s standard of living. 3. The increasing of exports to lift the weight of the allied obligations in the task of freeing the German people. Merger of Zones Mr Acheson reviewed reports that the Russians had seized the ownership of vast German ractory combines in East Germany and had them producing for Russia. He said the West must see an accurate report on what these seizures had done to German economy in the event of any merger of zones. “We can make no further progress toward unity if we ignore tnese issues,” he said. Mr Bevin said - the Germans should be left free to choose their political and conomic institutions.