Evening star., 1946-08-15
By the AsSccioied Press

| PARIS, Aug. 15.-The tent OF
Secretary Of State Byrnes' speech
before the Peace Conference to-
day:
The procedure of having the rep
resentatives Of the former enem!
states present their views at the be-
ginning of the conference instead o
This procedure will enable the com
missions to start their work not onl,
with the preliminary treaty draft!
prepared by the Council of Foreign
Ministers, but with the general OBJ.
servations of the former enemy
states on those drafts.
This procedure was wisely devised
! to facilitate the work OF the con
/ ference. But some of the discus.
sions which Immediately followed
! the general observations of the for
mer enemy states on the proposed
treaties have not made the WORE o
! the conference easier and have no
helped us on the road to peace.
| America would be willing even to
! let the reflections cast on her policies
here pass unnoticed if her silence
would help us on the way to peace
America is as eager to work anC
cooperate with her Allies in peace
as she was willing to fight with
them in the war. And no one views
with greater regret than l the re-
| ~, &c {o oFarte tn utNrE NJ
cooperate.
But peace among Allies in this
interdependent world cannot be
furthered by ignoring the repeated
abuse and Misrepresentation which
have been leveled against America
from this floor.
America has no apology to make
for the principles Of justice, equality
and freedom which we have striven
to the best of our ability, sometimes
successfully and sometimes unsuc-
cessfully, to have written into the
peace treaties.
Reds Wanted Basic Issues.
A word of explanation, however, is
required to make clear why some
questions were decided in the Coun-
Gil of Foreign Ministers and others
were not.
All the members of the Council
were agreed that it would be help
ful to harmonize their viewpoints so
far as possible to avoid conflict, fric-
ton and misunderstanding when
this conference did convene. But we
urged from the outset that when,
after discussion in the Council. there
was difference of viewpoint we
should request the advice and
recommendation of this conference
The Soviet government on the other
hand, took the view that it would
not consent to the calling of the
conference until all issues which
they regarded as fundamental from
their viewpoint were agreed upon In
the Council of Foreign Ministers.
1t so happens therefore that the
issues which the Soviet government
regards as fundamental have been
settled in the Council of Foreign
Ministers. We support those settle
ments. On the other hand a num-
Der of issues which we regard as i'm
portant are unsettled and the Soviet
government vigorously opposes our
viewpoint.
We do not object to the Soviet
government vigorously presenting
its viewpoint on these issues before
the conference. We did not and do
not ask the Soviet to come to agree
ment with us on these issues before
we would be willing to discuss them
with our Allies in this conference
But we do object to a misrepre-
sentation Of our position and our
motives. We do object to accusa-
tions being laid against the Italian
government because, in its opening
statement, it did not on all issues
associate itself with the Soviet point
of view
We do object to the Soviet govern
ment giving the impression to the
conference that other ex-enemy
states are more democratic than
italy because they have harmonized
their viewpoints with the Soviet
Union. The new italy constituted
by free election, is entitled to the
sympathy and encouragement of
every democratic state.
Denies War Enrichment.
The United States believes in the
sovereign equality of nations We
are opposed to making the small
nations satellites of the larger states.
The Soviet representa- tives, In an
swering the opening statement of
the Italian representative, referred
to great powers which have enriched
tn, lselves during the war. The
Soviet representative SO spoke in the
course of warning Italy against the
economic ambitions OF these powers
What great power enriched itself
hope that the Soviet representative
was not referring to America, which
came so unhesitatingly to the sup
port of the Soviet Union when it
was in great peril.
America never bound itself to
withhold aid from those resisting
Axis aggression. Many months be-
fore America was attacked, Frank
lin Delano Roosevelt announced
that America would become the
arsenal of the democracies and took
energetic action TO organize the
ilease-lend program which was CON-
tinued, even in increased measure,
after America entered the war.
Over $1l 100000 900 went to the So
Wet Union under the lease-lend pro-
gram. Our only regret was that we
could not send more to help her In
her struggle against the enemy
Americas expenditures during the
war have aggregated S400 900 900,
600. That represents American la
Dor, American human and material
resources. That money was bor-
! roWed from the American people
For years to come they must work
to pay off this debt For those
expenditures America has received
and has asked for no recompense
other than the freedom she fought
to secure for herself and for all
mankind
United States Seeks No Reparations