Evening star., 1955-07-21
AIphonse, CASTOR and Peace

The Geneva summit" conference
continues to enchant the world with an
impressive Alphonse and CASTOR act.
Carrying on as they are in a goldfish
bowl-with only rare interludes of pri-
vacy-the governing heads of France,
Britain, the United States and the Soviet
Union keep on smiling, keep on being
genial, keep on sounding conciliatory,
keep on behaving in spirit Of hail
fellow-well-me friendliness not seen in
international relations for the past 10
years. And all this is quite probably very
good. Indeed, to the extent that it is
melting the propaganda ice of the cold
war, it may actually be the forerunner of
slow but sure progress toward good and
lasting peace.
Yet, not surprisingly, the fact re-
mainS-aS both President Eisenhower and
Premier Bulganin have frankly and
genially admitted-that the Western Big
Three and the Soviet Union have reached
dead end at the moment as far as Ger
man reunification and European security
are concerned. The hearts desire of our
side is to bring into being united Ger
many at liberty to ally itself with the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but
within a framework of extraordinary
special guarantees designed to insure the
safety of the USSR. The Russians, on the
other hand, apparently still cling to
fundamentally different view. Their
hearts deSire-or so it seems, at any
rate-is the old one of wanting to 'neu-
fra1i1oO ho o,o+l
on step-by-step basis, '"iquidate" Amer
ican air bases over there, send our troops
back home, and thus make the free part
of the continent acutely vulnerable to
them in case they should wish to gobble
it up in the future.
These opposing positions, quite OBJ
viously, are irreconcilable. And so some
body or something will have to give If
Germany is to be unified and if the all
around security of Europe-on both sides
of the Iron Curtain-is to be established
on firm and trustworthy basis. But the
Russians at Geneva, despite their great
amiability, appear to be as adamant as
ever on this matter, and the same holds
true for the French, British and American
leaders. Certainly Premier Faure, Prime
Minister Eden and President Eisenhower
cannot make any significant or basic con-
cesSlons to the Soviet view without invit-
ing eventual conditions that could be
tantamount to cutting the throat Of the
free Western world. Perhaps the Big
Four, If they could get together more
privately than they can at the summit"
meeting, would be able to break this dead
lock, but there is some reason for doubt on
that score. After all, both before and
since the start of the conference, all au-
thorities have recognized that miracle
of sorts would be required to bring about
agreement on the issue, and hence there
is no Justification for shock over the
present impasse.
Nor is there any Justification, as of
right now, for the despairing conclusion
that the Geneva get-together must forth
with be written off as an utter failure
because of the Soviet position. For that
position, discouraging though it is, is a
familiar one, and its restatement has
come as no real surprise. Nor does it
necessarily constitute the Kremlin's last
word on the subject. On the contrary,
there is still at least the possibility that
the Russians will yield ground in later
talks-presumably at the level of foreign
ministers. Meanwhile, there is continu-
ing reason to hope that the Alphonse and
CASTOR behavior at the summit" may yet
prove to be thing of positive value in
terms of developing-no matter how
gradually-the kind of peace-promoting
climate that the whole world SOrelV needs
and yearns for.