Far Eastern Division: On February 18 at the conclusion of their meetings in Berlin, the Foreign Ministers of the United States, France, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union announced in a communiqué that they had agreed that a conference of representatives of the Big Four, the Peking regime, the two Koreas and the other countries the armed forces of which participated in the Korean conflict and which desired to attend should meet in Geneva on April 26 to reach a peaceful settlement of the Korean question. They also agreed that the conference should discuss the problem of Indo-China, on which occasion in addition to representatives of the Big Four and of the Peking regime, other interested states would be invited.

On February 19 representatives of the 16 United Nations Governments concerned in Korea and of the Republic of Korea met in Washington to discuss this Berlin agreement. They raised no objection to the State Department view that in the present circumstances no action should be taken to reply to the Communist letter of January 26 demanding the return to Panmunjom of U.S. Emissary Dean to resume the talks preliminary to the Political Conference.

At the Washington meeting Mr. Dean said that the Berlin agreement constituted to a considerable degree acceptance of the major U.N. aims at Panmunjom. He pointed out that under the agreement the Soviet Union would be a full participant in the Conference and thus obligated by its decisions. Moreover, the form of Soviet attendance meant that the difficult question of the participation and designation of neutrals would not now arise.

Concerning procedures for the Conference, Mr. Murphy of the State Department said that this would require consultation at a later time. Mr. Dean said that Mr. Eden had expressed the opinion in Berlin that there would be no need for further preliminary talks with the Communists and that the Conference itself should deal with procedural matters. Our Ambassador in Washington, speaking personally, expressed the view that questions of facilities and expense were of secondary importance at this time and that the principal cause for satisfaction about the Berlin agreement was that it was within the framework of U.N. decisions.

Mr. Scott has reported from Seoul that, according to the U.S. Ambassador there, President Rhee, while disappointed at the Berlin agreement, will probably not boycott the Conference.

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