Evening star., 1944-01-17


there is no truth" to the re-
port published in Pravda that
two English officials had con-
ferred secretly with German
Foreign Minister Won Ribben-
trop on terms of a separate
peace.
There is no truth to this
story" he said. People who
believe it will believe any
thing"
BY the Associated Press.
MOSCOW, Jan. 17.-Pravds
published a Cairo report today
that two English officials hae
conferred secretly with German
Foreign Minister Joachim vor
Ribbentrop to find terms for &
separate peace with Germany
and added:
1T is understood the meeting
did not remain without results
The 10-line dispatch, published
at the top of Pravada's foreign new.
page under the heading, "Rumor.
from Cairo" said the meeting "hae
the aim of finding out the condi.
tions of a separate peace with the
Germans"
Officials Here amazed"
1t took place in one of the sea-
coast cities of the Pyrenees PENN.
sula'-apparently Spain or Portuga
according to the official Commun-
ist party newspaper report.
In Washington, the first re-
action of officials was frank
amazement that such a report
should have been published in a
paper which usually speaks with
such authority as Pravda. In a
less authoritative publication, the
report would have received little
or no attention.
Concern ran less to any pos
sibility of truth in the report,
since the British have COM
mitted themselves on many oc-
casions against separate peace,
than it did to the Russian pur-
pose in giving the report circu-
iation)
The text of the dispatch:
Cairo, Jan. II (By Special Cor
respondent of Pravda) According
to information from reliable Greek
and YugoSlav sources, a secret meet
ing took place recently in one Of
the seacoast cities of the Pyrenee,
Peninsula between two English
officials and Won Ribbentrop.
The meeting had the aim of find
ing out the conditions of a separate
peace with the Germans. 1t is un-
derstood the meeting did not remain
without results
(Tass broadcast the report, say
ing the meeting was in coastal
town on the Iberian Peninsula"
This was picked up by the Soviet
monitor in London from a Mos
COW long-wave telegraph trans
mission. It was not included in
the usual news voice broadcasts.
tThere was no elaboration or
comment on the dispatch.
British reaction to the Pravda
story was to reiterate the re-
peated British declaration that
no peace would be negotiated
with the Germans without full
accord of all the Allies, including
the Russians and Americans.
CA British spokesman, whose
name cannot be used, was in
clined to regard the story lightly,
raising the question that if it
originated in Cairo, why was it
not circulated by British and
American news agencies as we'll
as Pravda? He expressed doubt
that any such report passed the
Cairo censorship
Pacts Ban Separate Peace.
The original Soviet-British agree
ment on joint wartime actor
against Germany and their late
20-year alliance both provided tha
neither side would make a separat,
peace.
Pravda's dispatch amounted to al
accusation that Britain, at least
was sounding out Germany on tn
possibility of a separate peace.
The concluding sentence that tn
secret parleY did not remain with
out results, carried for Russians tn,
positive sense that it had at leas
partial success.
There was no official Soviet com.
ment. and British officials in Mos
COW said they could not understand
either the report or it's publication
They said they did not believe it.
although there was no do
mestic censorship ban on its pub
lication, no mention had been
made of the Pravda article in
London newspapers up to mid
afternoon. The British news
service Reuters carried a brief
story attributed to a Moscow
broadcaSt)
There were two interesting point
about the dispatch:
/. Although it appeared in tn,
organ of the Communist party, i
was not official and did not ever
bear the weight of a dispatch O
the official news agency, Tass, bu
was labeled plainly as from specia
Balkan sources.
The newspaper itself labeled tn,
story as among 'rumors."
2. The mere fact of publication O.
the story was of considerable i'm.
portance at time when the United
Nations appeared to have been in.
dissolubly joined after the Moscow
and Teheran conferences.
While Pravda's back page carried
the Cairo story of separate peace
negotiations, the front page dis.
played the Polish government state.
ment, asking the United States ane
Great Britain to arrange Soviet.
Polish negotiations, and the Soviet
reply that negotiations with the
present Polish government were i'm.
possible.