Movement at Paris
Mr. Gromyko's new formula, linking the demilitarisation of Germany directly with the causes of international tension, should bring the termination of the deplorably futile discussions between the Foreign Ministers' deputies at Paris within the range of human vision. For the prolonged failure to draft an agenda for the Council of Foreign Ministers Mr. Gromyko bears by no means the predominant responsibility. None of the Allied representatives has revealed any large grasp of the situation, all preferring what has degenerated into something little better than a competition in quibbling. It is idle to imagine that any Paris agenda will represent cast-iron shackles by which the Foreign Ministers are to be irrevocably bound. The essential thing is for the Foreign Ministers to meet. When they do, they may or may not go beyond the limits of the Paris agenda ; they will obviously be perfectly free to if they choose. But that they will be rigorously precluded from touching on item 4, for example, till full and final agreement is reached on item 3 is not for a moment to be imagined ; international conferences are not run like that. Mr. Gromyko's last draft has not only brought agreement nearer, but made it immediately practicable. His three colleagues had better close with it and have clone.
