Evening star., 1950-12-26
A New Meeting With Russia?

On November g. asking for reply "at verv
early date" the Soviet Union sent to France
Britain and the United States identical notes
vocing concern over decisions by the three
powers to rearm West Germany on strictly
limited scale. The notes requested the summon
ing of special Russian French British -Ameri-
can conference to discuss the whole German
problem in line with the so-called Prague
proposals.
And now the three Western powers have
replied Using the same language in separate
notes, they have in effect rejected the Soviet
request on the ground that any discussion based
on the Prague propoSals-mere propaganda pro-
posals whose real meaning can be summed up
in the statement that they would give the Krem-
lin control of all Germany-would be a futile
waste of time. But France, Britain and the
United States have not slammed the door on
the idea of holding new Foreign Ministers
conference with Russia.
At the same time, however, the three powers
have emphasized to the Kremlin that they will
not take part in any discussions limited merely
to Germany. What they have insisted upon is
that the narrow, Russian-proposed agenda
must be broadened Ito include equally the
principal problems whose solution would per-
nit real and lasting improvement in the
relations between the Soviet Union and the
United States, Great Britain and France,
and the elimination of the cause of present inter-
national tensions throughout the world" In
short, rightly holding that those tensions do not
spring from the German situation but from the
obstructionist aggressive and dominance seeking
policy that Moscow has been following every
where ever since the end of the Second World
War, they want a full-dress, all-inclusive con-
ference, or none whatever-a conference to
which the Stain dictatorship must come in good
faith with a genuine desire to negotiate some
peaceful and honorable way out of the terrible
impasse that now threatens gobal explosion
Given the essential ingredient of good faith,
such an East-West meeting-wtich Pope Plus
has urgently advocated in his Christmas message
-conceivably could do much to check the present
rapid trend toward the catastrophe of another
world war. But let no one deceive himself As
the State Department has observed in its "back-
ground" statement bearing upon the Anglo
French-American reply to the Kremlin, the
Soviet negotiating record from 1945 up to now
both within the United Nations and in special
organs like the Big Four Council of Foreign
MiniSters-is far more conducive to pessimism
than to optimism over the outlook for peaceful
settlement, doubly so because of Moscows open
support of and ominous involvement in the
criminal aggression against the U. N in Korea
Actually, even if the Kremlin accepts the
proposal for a four-power meeting to deal not
only with the German problem but all other
major points of tension, there can be no real
and lasting improvement" in relations between
the Soviet Union and the free world unless the
former is prepared to agree to such basic meas
ures as an end to its policy of direct and indi-
rect aggression, the establishment of genuinely
effective atomic control, and the tearing down
of the Iron Curtain. Short of that, how can
there ever be peace in which mankind can
have the slightest confidence?