Evening star., 1952-11-16

time, that they will cover several
other points of great Importance:
/. The Truman administration
will urge Gen. Eisenhower to name
his top cabinet members dealing
with foreign and security prob
lemS-State, Defense and Treas
ury-within two weeks and direct
them tt begin working with their
Truman administration predeces-
scrs here about December l at the
latest. What action will be taken
along this line is, of course, mat
ter fol Gen. Eisenhower to decide.
Korea Statement Sought.
2. The administration also is
prepared to tell the general and
his advisers that statement by
MIN or the Korean situation. in
dorsine the present policy of in
sisting on voluntary repatriation
of prisoners of war in any armis-
tice agreement, would greatly
strengthen the United States in
dealing with other nations at the
U. N General Assembly.
3. Gen, Eisenhower will have an
opportunity to express his views
about the foreign policy problems
and the present Administrations s
intentions. as these are presented
to MIN. Highly placed officials
safe that Mr.. Truman will take
any Eisenhower views into consid-
eratitn in making the decisions
that have to be made between now
and January 20.
4. The meetings will afford an
opportunity for the outgoing and
incoming President by joint state
ment, assuming they can agree on
one, to symbolic the unity which
both men have declared they would
like to demonstrate to the rest of
the world.
To Hold Two Meetings.
According to present plans Mr..
Truman and Gen. Eisenhower will
hold two meetings. First and
probably for a very brief time only,
they will meet privately. Some
authorities here believe that in this
face-to-face session, the President
will seek to emphasize to the
President-elect that he is deeply
anxious to do whatever he can to
arrange for a smooth transfer of
administration which will prevent
the Soviets from taking advantage
of any uncertainty in American
policies during the transition
period.
From the private session the
plan is for the two men to go
Immediately to the cabinet room
and join a second and larger ses-
sion with their advisers. In this
meeting are scheduled to be Sec
retary of State Acheson, Secre-
tary of Defense Lovett, Secretary
of the Treasury Snyder, and
Averell Hartman, foreign aid di-
rector. On Gen. Eisenhower's side
are expected to be Senator Lodge,
Republican of Massachusetts,, his
representative to executive depart
ments of the Government, and
Joseph M. Dodge, his special rep
resentative to the Budget Bureau.
Won't Assume Responsibility.
Gen. Eisenhower's headquarters
at Augusta, Ga, indicated a week
ago that the general would not
assume responsibility for Gov
ernment decisions before Janu-
ary 20 because he has no au-
thority for making such decisions.
Persons familiar with President
Truman's views say that he is
fully prepared to make all his
own decisions and has no thought
of asking Gen Eisenhower to
assume responsibility for them.
The practical responsibility
which the administration would
like the general to take is that
.of a voice in the shaping of
foreign policy decisions to the
extent that Mr.. Truman may
avoid taking any step which would
later be reversed or radically
changed by the new administra-
|tion.