Dulles Will Raise Communist Arms Deal Informally at Geneva

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles will not raise the Communist-Egyptian arms issue formally at the Geneva conference which opens Thursday, State Department sources said today. His approach will be “strictly informal,” it was said here. Washington sources predicted Mr. Dulles will bring up the arms question by suggesting to Soviet Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov that the flow of Soviet-bloc arms to Egypt is undermining the “spirit of Geneva” and raising Western doubts about Communist intentions.

A hint will be made by Mr. Dulles, it is forecast, that the Soviet Union could regain a measure of Western confidence by immediately severing the military supply links with Egypt. It is not anticipated, however, that the matter will be presented as a formal ultimatum. The issue will be treated, according to well-informed sources, as a matter on the periphery of the main Geneva objectives.

Reports received here today from Paris took the view that the Soviet Union, through arms shipments to Egypt, is seeking to blackmail the Western Powers into concessions at Geneva on European security and German reunification. They indicated that there was reason to believe that Moscow had purposely timed the arms deal to coincide with the Geneva conference in order to place the Western Powers in the position of having to ask the Soviet Union to desist.

French political circles see in the Saar vote of Sunday a setback to Israel’s hope for effective support from France in securing reversal of the Soviet arms policy in the Middle East. It had been hoped by Israelis that the French would take the lead in championing the Israel cause, but the Saar vote, it was felt, does not strengthen France as a power to intervene in Israel’s favor.