NO IRREPARABLE SETBACK

Southland Times, Issue 25796, 6 October 1945, Page 5

NO IRREPARABLE SETBACK

Failure of Meeting

in London

(Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, October 4. The failure of the Council of Foreign Ministers was not an irreparable setback, but a definite gain towards making a more just and equitable peace settlement, affording Australia and other small nations the opportunity to participate, declared the Australian Minister of External Affairs, Dr H. V. Evatt, at a Press conference. Australia’s case, as expounded from the beginning, had now been accepted by the three great Powers. Dr Evatt added that the statement by Mr James Byrnes (the U.S. Secretary of State), that every nation which gave men in battle should be entitled to take part in drafting the peace settlement put Australia’s point of view. Britain had already indicated her acceptance of that principle, and he was confident that it would also be acceptable to Russia. Dr Evatt said the council was an extension into the post-surrender period of the three-power agreement which had worked successfully during the war. The Potsdam agreement had, however, added France and China to the powers discussing the settlement and several vague provisions designed to take into account the position of the other United Nations had been added. One was that the result of the council’s deliberations should be submitted to

toe United Nations. The Potsdam suggestion that “countries with direct interest” might be consulted was anything but clear-cut. The Potsdam arrangement was unworkable because it restricted the membership of the council to five powers, who would be permanent members of the World Security Council. It followed a wrong analogy that the Security Council would include the six non-permanent members, providing a balance between the great powers and the other United Nations.

The particular disagreement which ended the conference of the Foreign Ministers related to the participation in the council of China and France. The matter must now be examined in relation not only to those two powers but to all belligerents entitled to participate. The conference must include such states which carried on sustained belligerence against the Axis powers. It must be borne in mind that the United States, Australia and New Zealand bore the brunt of the fighting in the Pacific. “We cannot possibly be excluded from the Japanese settlement,” he concluded.