Evening star., 1954-04-25

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Whether Ho Chi Mimi, the Wet
NameSe Red chief, will come to
Geneva was a matter of conjec-
ture. There have been recurring
rumorS in the past few years that
Ho is dead, but these have never
been substantiated. The Kremlin
said last week that France should
negotiate directly with the Wet
Mimi leader. increasing specula-
ton this time that Ho is still alive.
One Of the curiosities of the
conference will be the methods
'Vyacheslav Molotov, the Krem-
Inns foreign minister, uses to work
with Red China's Chou and the
Wet Mimi representative. There
is little reason to expect anything
but monologue, yet the West could
not help hoping that the three
parties might see some aspects
of the Korea and Indo-China
problems in different lights.
Slow Stort Likely
It did not appear likely this
week end that much substantive
work would be done in the first
few days of the conference, at
least. Two controversial matters
probably will slow up the affair:
The status of Red China and the
agenda.
Wrangling over Red China's
rights at the conference could
well bog the talks down for
months. Even the western Big
Three could not agree last week
on how Mr.. Chou should be
treated. Secretary of State John
Foster Dulles says fatty the
United States will withdraw rather
than see Red China given equal
status, including its turn at the
Craftsmanship of the meetings.
So far Britain and France have
not come up with a compromise
that will save both Mr.. Chou's
face and Mr.. Dulles. One plan
under discussion was to call in a
private Swiss citizen to be per-
manent, neutral chairman.
AS for the agenda, the United
States favors starting off with the
Korean unification question, while
France would prefer to get going
on Indo- China talks. from the
opening gun.
All of. these questions have arisen
because the Big Four agreement
at Berlin was purposely vague.
Here is what the four powers
agreed to on February 18:
e.. That conference of repre-
sentatives of the United States,
France, the United Kingdom, the
U. S. S. R., the Chinese Peoples
(Communist) Republic, the Re
public of South Korea, the Peoples
Democratic Republic of North
Korea and other countries the
armed forces of which participated
in the hostilities in Korea and
which desire to attend shall meet
in Geneva April 26 for the purpose
of reaching a peaceful settlement
of the Korea question
g.. That the problem of re-
storing peace in ndo-China shall
also be discussed at the conference
to which representatives of the
United States, France, the United
Kingdom, the U. S. S. r., the Chi
nese Peoples Republic and other
interested states shall be invited"
Dulles Build Up
In the nine weeks and three days
since the end of the Berlin confer
ence, the United States has been
massing its strength for Geneva,
concentrating mainly on the Indo-
China question.
Secretary Dulles has tried, with
no little success, to back up war
weary France and Wet Nam so
closely in their war against Wet
Mini Communist rebels that they
cannot back out on anything but
favorable terms.
Although Mr.. Dulles failed to get
pledge from Britain, France and
seven other ASiatic allies to join
united action" to hold Indo-
China, he did succeed in impress
ing on the Communists and France
that an international effort to
save the Associated States would
be a definite possibility if the &C.
neva conference fails. The French
and British have agreed to dis
cuss united action If the attempt
at arranging a negotiated peace
collapses.
In addition, the United States
administration has told the world
that it will take unilateral action
II necessary to prevent Indo-
China's fall and even will send
American troops in the unlikely"
event that other plans to hold the
strategic Southeast Asian penin-
sula fail. While the United States
does not rule out the possibility of
finding some way to an honorable
negotiated settlement of the war
there, prospects obviously are not
considered very good.
Last week, American planes
were used to haul fresh French
paratroops to Indo- China to help
hold the fortress of Dien Bien
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