BIG THREE TALKS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27387, 12 May 1950, Page 5

BIG THREE TALKS

“Purpose Is Peace” TWO INCONTROVERTIBLE REALITIES NZPA—Reuter—Copyright LONDON, May 10. Mr Dean Acheson, the United States Secretary of State, speaking at a Pilgrim’s dinner in London tonight—the eve of the vital Big Three Foreign Ministers’ talks—said: “ Our purpose is peace, not war.” The two incontrovertible realities of the present time, he said, were the “ lack of balance in our international economic relationships,” and “ we have in our midst the people of Western Germany.” Mr Acheson said that there had so far been an encouraging measure of success in the efforts made to . overcome the first factor, “ but the Efforts we have made to date will not bririg entire success. The Marshall Plan was designed to correct a portion of the causes of this lack of balance, and it is successfully fulfilling this function, but some sacrifice of purely national interest is unavoidable to overcome the rest of the problem." Western Germany On the question of Western Germany Mr Acheson said that Germany was in a poor position to face the problems of the future wholly independently and in a national framework alone. The need for closer and more organic associations between Germany and her western neighbours had arisen, first, because the country was split into the east and the west, and, secondly, from the pressure of the population in the western zones. The re-establishment of Germany in the western family must be “a cooperative enterprise in which risks and responsibilities are shared by all.” No harder enterprise had ever been undertaken jointly by a group of nations. Mr Acheson said. “No enterprise has been more heavily encumbered with fears and sensitivities and divergencies of outlook, but it is a problem dictated to us by the demands of the times,” he said. The Germans themselves must be prepared to accept their full measure of responsibilities and risks if the process was to succeed. They must have forbearance, understanding and restraint. “If we on our part remain considerate of the world’s need for German energies, talents and enthusiasm in the preservation of civilisation,” he said, “ then I am sure that our purpose will be accomplished.” International Amity

Discussing international co-opera-tion among the non-Communist countries of Europe and the North Atlantic area. Mr Acheson said the Foreign Ministers’ aim was to make certain that the .great differences wracking the world in recent years did not lead “ to the catastrophe of a third world war.” The Foreign Ministers had to see to it that everything was done to preserve the possibility of eventually reunifying all Europe. It was folly to believe that the prospects of peace could be enhanced by means which excluded the vigorous strengthening of Europe or the Western community of which Europe was part. Peace was the only motive.

“We have no interest in a limited international organisation for the Atlantic and European areas other than the preservation of peace,” he said. “ We are not urging anyone to join any international grouping for any purpose of our own which is . not supported by the recognised self-interest of every other one of the countries concerned. We have not the wish for war, or for national slavery, or for the perpetuation o'f a divided Europe.’’ Admitting Europe’s powerful traditions, peculiar economic difficulties, and enforced circumstances of action, Mr Acheson said: “ We have no desire to urge our friends into the impossible.”

Fie concluded by saying that America on her part, had to make sacrifices “ no less disagreeable and no less difficult than those which will be called for by any of the countries on this side of the Atlantic.”