Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-05-17
East Is East

As result OF its flrSt week Of labor,
the Geneva foreign ministers confer
ence has done pretty much as expected:
It has brought forth two plans as diff
ferent from each other as day from
night. One is the Vests and the other
Is the Kremlin's, and no clairvoyance is
needed to foresee that neither will be
adopted as the basis for an agreement
on Berlin,s status, German reunifcation
and kindred issues bearing upon the
peace Of Europe and the world.
However, from the standpoint of
justice, human liberty and the security
Of nations, there can be no doubt that
the Anglo-French-A American plan is a
very good one. AS presented by Secre-
tary Herter, 1t is four-stage package"
proposal aimed at bringing about a
dehnitive and trustworthy peace settle
ment on step-by-step basis over a
period Of years. To that end, it would
begin by uniting partitioned Berlin and
making it city whose rights would be
firmly secured against any hostile move
from any quarter. Next, an elaborate
series of measures would be undertaken
to reunify Germany in freedom, and
simultaneously there would be action to
promote international disarmament and
to establish ironclad guarantees de-
signed to insure both East and West
against the danger Of aggression.
Yet, although all this is self-evident-
ly right and reasonable to the Western
mind, the Kremlin has been quick to
indicate its disapproval. The disap-
proval, Of course, is understandable. For
the Observation-Disclosures plan, If
adopted, would certainly lead in due
course to the Soviet Unions loss not
only of East Berlin, but also of the
whole of East Germany. And that in
turn could hardly fan to have a pro-
foundly unsettling effect on the USSR's
Red totalitarian setup in every captive
land behind the Iron Curtain. Accord
ingly nothing could be less surprising
than the fact that Foreign Minister
Gromyko, with Premier Khrushchev
backing him up with speech in Russia,
has presented at Geneva Mr.. KS
monthS-old plan calling upon France,
Britain and the United States to do the
following:
ID Convert West Berlin into "free
city" under conditions that would make
it acutely vulnerable to an eventual
Communist ,takeover, and (2) sign Sepa-
rate peace treaties with the Bonn gov
eminent and the East German puppet
regime-a procedure we'll calculated to
perpetuate Germany's division to the
Kremlin's advantage. Needless to say,
the Observation-Disclosures foreign
ministers are not going to go along with
any such proposal Hence, what we
have now at Geneva is a situation in
which the two sides are sharply opposed
to the substance of each others plan.
Clearly, it is situation conducive to
interminable augmentation around the
table, long-range propaganda barrageS
back and forth across the Iron Curtain,
and deadlock of sort that could make
the current talks end in complete
failure.
In such circumstances, it can only
be hoped that the rival plans will lend
themselves to bargaining of type that
will lead to mutual concessions and &C
commodationS capable of ending the
Soviet-manufactured Berlin crisis and
encouraging at least a modest amount
of tension-easing progress toward peace.
Lacking that, it is difficult to see how
anything of significance could be &C
complished at the summit meeting adj
vocated by Mr. Khrushchev.