Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-04-29
Beginning a Beqinninq?

beginning q beginning!
Although skepticiSim must continue
to be the order of the day, the world can
find at least few nuggets of encourage
ment both in the official communique on
the Anglo-Soviet talks and in the news
conference held by Premier Bulganin and
Nikita Khrushchev at the close of their
visit to Britain. The nuggets may not be
very big, but still they are there.
AS the communique frankly admits,
the talks have failed to promote any
progress toward an agreement on how
best to deal with the problem of European
security, which is Of decisive Importance
to the maintenance of world peace. And
the reason for this failure is that the
Russians have declined to bulge from
their opposition to the allied Western
view that Germany must be reunited as
genuinely free nation Similarly, with
the Kremlin continuing to shy away
from President EisenhoWer's "open skies"
proposal, the effort to achieve meeting
of minds on disarmament apparently re-
mains as begged down as ever.
But some advances seem to have been
made in other directions Thus, although
the British have not modified their adher-
ence to the allied embargo on strategic
shipments to Communist bloc countries,
the Russians have had promising things
to say about the possibility of nom
strategic trade of a kind that could be
of considerable Importance to the United
Kingdom. Further, they have indicated
that they may be ready to reduce the
very high ruble exchange rate that now
debarS most Britons from visiting the
USSR. And they have also shown
willingness, judging from the commu-
nique, to make the Iron Curtain a bit
less impenetrable by increasing Anglo
Soviet cultural and scientific contacts and
by permitting "a freer exchange of infor-
nation by the spoken and written word"
Most important of all, however, the
Russians apparently have agreed to pro-
mote peace in the Middle East by giving
"the necessary support to the United
Nations" and by carrying out "the APP
propriate decisions of the Security Coun-
cil'-decisions that might we'll include a
complete ban on arms shipments (includ-
ing Soviet-sponsored Czech shipments to
Egypt to any country in the region. Sig
ni1cantly enough, in his ws-conference
remarks on the subject, Mr. KhruShchev
has strengthened the communique by
declaring that the men of the Kremlin
would welcome" such a ban if it could
be agreed upon within the u N. or other
wise. True, he has said this with some
qualifying phrases, and he may have had
In mind the idea of trying to stop West
ern military assistance to the nations of
the Baghdad pact, but the general tenor
of his words encourages the hope that
Moscow may be sincerely prepared to
cooperate in efforts to abate and end
the Arab-Israeli crisis
In another respect, too, Mr.. Khrush-
chew and Premier Bulganin have given
at least the appearance of wanting to
live on more friendly terms with the West.
They have done this by emphatically dis
avowing any desire to undermine Anglo
American unity and by asking the British
to help improve relations between Russia
and the United StateS-relationS which
are now "far from sufficiently normal,
fact we regret" And Prime Minister
Eden, who will visit the USSR later this
year, has commented with cautious opti-
mlsm on the results of his talks with
them. AS he has put it, "The London
discussions could be something important.
They could be the beginning of Begin
ming" of slow but sure march toward
good world peace.
All this may seem to be rather
meager fare for hope to feed on. But it
ought not to be brushed aside or scoffed
at as If it had no substance or meaning.
For post-Stalin Russia, both internally
and externally, has been undeniably in
a process of change. and the task of
Western statesmanship-as Secretary
Dulles declared the other days to build
constructlvely on that change wherever
it promises to be for the better.