Limited Truce

For a while it looked as though the Foreign Ministers Conference would never end; this week, finally, the conference unraveled itself and managed to adjourn. The limited agreement reached between the West and Russia was largely a declaration of intention; as such it would please those who have any faith in Russia's good intentions.

The Deal. On Berlin, the Ministers reached what the diplomats insisted on calling a modus vivendi, i.e., a way of muddling along in Berlin without real concessions from either side. The agreement instructed the Berlin occupation commanders to consult on how they might "mitigate the effects of the present administrative division of Germany and of Berlin." They would try to "normalize" Berlin's life, "facilitate" the movement of goods and people between Berlin and the Western and Eastern zones. They would also seek expansion of trade between the Western and Eastern zones. The Ministers formally agreed that the New York deal lifting the Berlin blockade should remain in force, and that it was each occupation commander's responsibility "to ensure the normal functioning and utilization of rail, water and road transport" between the Western and Eastern zones and Berlin.

The Ministers also settled the basic problems that had blocked an Austrian peace treaty. The West gave in to a Russian demand for $150 million, payable in six years. Russia would not claim any additional "German assets" in Austria, but would keep the ones she had already seized. In exchange, the Russians with drew their support of a Yugoslav claim to some Austrian territory and reparations. The Yugoslavs would long ago have given up their claim had Russia not deliberately kept it alive for bargaining purposes.

The Foreign Ministers' deputies were instructed to draft an Austrian treaty and submit it to their bosses no later than Sept. i. During the next U.N. Assembly session in New York in September, the Big Four would try to arrange for another Foreign Ministers' meeting. This was what diplomats call "keeping the door open."

Message from Molotov. The visiting Foreign Ministers sighed with relief and started packing. Dean Acheson was in his office when an aide brought in a slip of paper. Acheson read the note and burst out laughing. It was a message from Andrei Vishinsky, who had himself just received a message from Molotov in Moscow, requesting that the final communique on the conference be held up and that the Ministers convene once more.

Wearily, an hour and a half after saying goodbye to each other, the Ministers met again. The Russians wanted to clarify a point in the Austrian agreement. Vishinsky eventually agreed to take up the matter later through regular diplomatic channels.

The Paris agreement, such as it was, provided a cold war respite which both sides had wanted--though the Russians had probably needed it more than the West. If the West, lulled by the Paris agreement, relaxed its efforts to build up the non-Communist world, then the meeting would turn out to be a great Communist victory. If not, it would be just another skirmish in the long, cold war.

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