Evening star., 1953-10-06
At the Highest Level?

Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill Is
being more wishful than realistic If it Is true,
as reported from London, that he plans to take
the initiative again for Big Four conference
"at the highest level"-a conference in which
he President Eisenhower and the head of the
French government would meet with Soviet
Premier Georgi Malenkov in an effort to pro-
mote world peace.
When Sir winston first advocated such
meeting last May, President Eisenhower, while
not fatty rejecting the idea, made clear that
he considered it to be premature. He made
clear, too that our Government would be dis
inclined to give it serious attention unless and
until Russia's leaders demonstrated by deeds
like signing an Austrian treaty and agreeing to
negotiate just German settlement-that they
were really sincere in their talk about wanting
to coexist peacefully with the free world.
Nothing has since happened that would appear
to justify change in this American view. On
the contrary, considering the nature of Soviet
conduct in recent weeks, the United States
seems to have more reason than ever to be cool
to the Churchill proposal.
This is so because the men of the Kremlin
have been acting lately as if they were de-
liberately intent upon avoiding any kind OF
negotiation with the West at this time. Thus,
through Andrei ViShinsky in the United Nations
General Assembly, they have been staging
show that has all the earmarks of pre-planned
flibuster designed to put off indefinitely, if not
forever the Korean political conference that is
supposed to convene-in keeping with the truce
terms-before the end of this month Similarly,
in their most recent response to the long-stand-
ing Anglo -French-American proposal for Big
Four foreign ministers meeting on Germany
and Austria, they have offered nothing but
rehash of stale and mendacious propaganda in
which they have left virtually no room for
doubt about their unwillingness to join in such
meeting. Just why they have taken this
line whether because of internal uncertainty
or because they have some aggressive objec-
tive in mind, is not clear. The only thing clear
is the fact that their persistent nay-Saying
strongly indicates that they are in no mood at
present to talk seriously with our world about
easing international tensions and working out
peaceful settlements.
Yet, despite all this, Prime Minister
Churchill is reliably reported to be ready to
press for Big -Four heads government meet
ing, and official opinion in .France-not to
mention countries like India-apparently is
strong for the idea, too. The Kremlin is block
ing Korean conference, and 1t continues to
evade invitations to a gathering of foreign
ministers, but stiIl-as if believing that states
men can work magic when they convene "at
the highest levep'-Sir Winston and others in
the West want get-together with Malenkov.
Certainly, viewed against the background of
Soviet behavior to date, here is a proposal that
seems to have precious little merit in it-like
a proposal to go out chasing will O. the Wlsp.
In the circumstances, unless there is some
thing in the international picture to warrant
a change in his past position-something not
yet known to the general public President
Eisenhower presumably will remain as unre-
ceptive as ever when and If Sir Winston tries
again to sell him on the idea of meeting with
Malenkov. In any event, judging from the
Kremin's outward actions, it is extremely
difficult to see how such meeting-even If it
did no harm-could be productive OF good.