Concessions & Resolutions

So far, in preparation for the four-power meeting in Berlin, the three Western powers had made all the concessions. After suggesting Jan. 4 for the meeting, they let Russia set the date: Jan. 25. The West wanted to meet in Lugano, Switzerland; when Russia proposed Berlin, the Western powers agreed to that, too. The West wanted to take up only the question of Germany and Austria, but it conceded to Russia's demand for an agendaless or wide open conference. Last week the Western powers gave in again. After days of haggling, the four powers agreed to hold their discussions in the Allied Control Council building in West Berlin one week and in the ponderous Soviet embassy in East Berlin the next week.* The British and French could not see why one-fourth of the group should have one-half the choice of meeting place, and were for making a big issue of it, on the ground that the Russians did not really dare hold out indefinitely. "The Russians don't mind the conference beginning." said a cynical French diplomat. "But they won't want it to end." He was undoubtedly right: the longer the Russians can keep the Foreign Ministers in session in Berlin, the longer France would delay getting down to voting on the European Army. But John Foster Dulles is anxious to get Molotov to the table, to see whether anything is on his mind, so Washington talked Paris and London into conceding.

Last week in Moscow, Molotov told the French ambassador that the Kremlin's priority list for Berlin is: 1) a Big Five conference, to include Red China; 2) European security, including the German question; and 3) "world disarmament." It sounded like the same old thing, all wrapping and no meat.

* One suggestion that got nowhere: in Allahabad, the Naga Sadhus, holiest of India's holy men, suggested that Eisenhower, Churchill, Malenkov, Mao Tse-tung and India's Prime Minister Nehru (optional at no extra cost) meet in the nude high up on the Himalayas to bring an end to the cold war.

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