United They Stand

When he went to Walter Reed Army Hospital last week, Secretary Dulles left behind him, as a solid achievement of his personal diplomacy, a united Western position on Berlin. Fundamentals of the position, as Dulles set them down after his return from talks with government chiefs in London, Paris and Bonn:

P:Make no concessions unless the Russians make concessions in return.

P: Refuse to accept "any substitution of East Germany for the Soviet Union in its responsibilities toward Berlin" if the Russians carry out their threat to turn over their occupation rights in Berlin to the East German puppet government on May 27. This allied stand does not rule out a possibility of dealing with East Germany as an "agent" of the Soviet Union if the Russians formally admit a continuing responsibility for assuring allied access to Berlin, as promised in 1945.

P: Use force, if necessary, to uphold the allies' right to supply their military outposts in Berlin (the West expects no interference with the flow of civilian goods to West Berlin). "We are resolved," said Dulles, "that our position in and access to West Berlin shall be preserved. We are in general agreement as to the procedures we shall follow if physical means are invoked to interfere with our rights."

Meanwhile, the U.S., Britain, France and West Germany finished drafting their closely similar replies to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's note of Jan. 10, suggesting a 28-nation conference to prepare a peace treaty with West and East Germany. Indirectly spurning Khrushchev's gambit, the allies suggested a Big Four foreign ministers' conference on Berlin and Germany. Suggested place: Vienna, to avoid the fog of failure that hangs over Geneva, site of many futile East-West conferences since the end of World War II. The notes named no date; France's Charles de Gaulle had insisted that to suggest a date prior to May 27 would make it appear that the allies were fearfully yielding to a Soviet ultimatum.

At week's end the State Department announced that the U.S., British, French and West German foreign ministers would meet in Paris in March "if developments warrant"--meaning if Moscow has replied by then to the allied notes.

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