A spokesman for the British United Nations Mission said today that his government believes “it is imperative that the Four Power machinery should continue to function and should be seen to do so” despite the break-off by the United States yesterday of the Four Power deputies talks. Foreign diplomatic sources said the British position appeared to be that the Four Power deliberations on the Middle East are divorced from the situation in the Suez cease-fire zone. The British are said to take this view on grounds that the Four Power representatives derive their mandate from the UN Security Council’s Resolution 242 while the cease-fire was a bilaterally negotiated arrangement. (A British Foreign Office spokesman said in London today that his government was “disappointed” by the American move but that it would not provoke “even a mild crisis” between London and Washington.) The British are believed to have considerable sympathy with the reasons that inspired the American break-off of the deputies talks but do not agree that the U.S. response was the correct one in the circumstances. It was pointed out that the deputies cannot dissolve themselves as they are subordinate to the Four Powers–U.S., Soviet Russia. Britain and France–permanent representatives to the UN and charged by them with a specific task. The Four Powers will hold their next meeting on Monday. Oct. 12 at which time, according to information here, the matter of the suspended deputies meetings will be taken up.
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