14 JUNE 1946, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK

THE new meeting of the four Foreign Ministers at Paris cannot but be critical. If substantial agreement is not reached this time, the alternative is agreement, disguised or undisguised, to dis-

agree, with all the unpredictable disasters that that may entail. And of agreement so far there is small sign. Britain and the United States see eye to eye on all material points, and over none of them would France (who, it is to be hoped, will still be represented by

M. Bidault) make serious or prolonged difficulty. But there is no indication that Russia is yet prepared to discuss Austria ; or to yield to the general view over Danube navigation or the Venezia Giulia settlement ; or to consider respectfully British proposals regarding Libya. The Russian member of the Committee of Foreign Ministers' deputies has just vetoed a new and democratic British proposal on that point. Pravda, moreover, has devoted to Mr. Bevin's speech an article which constitutes in effect a sustained attack on British policy. But it seems possible that the sharpest divergence will be over the future of Germany. The Potsdam Agreement, which provided that Germany should be treated as, an economic unit, and that politically there should be uniform treatment of the population throughout Germany, has broken down com- pletely. There is not one economic zone but four in Germany, and the political treatment of the population in the Russian zone is sub- stantially different from that in the three others. The absence of any semblance of a central German Government creates increasing difficulties. In the circumstances the plan, which Mr. Bevin is under- stood to have ready, for the creation of a federal Germany, with large powers of provincial self-government and the necessary mini- mum of co-ordination at the centre, has much to commend it. Mr. Byrnes is reputed to be favourable, and there is no reason why France, if some deference is paid to her views on the Ruhr, should not concur. It is at least possible that Russia may accept the plan. In that case real progress will be achieved. If not, the question of putting it into operation in the three western zones will have to be considered seriously. But that would involve an open, and it might be a long-enduring, breach between Western policy and Russian, and drive a new wedge through the heart of Germany. That is a grave prospect to contemplate.