The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1942. MR. CHURCHILL'S MOSCOW VISIT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 194, 18 August 1942, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1942. MR. CHURCHILL'S MOSCOW VISIT

w HAT took Mr. Chun hill tu the Kremlin? The knowledge that Russia was in extremis? Or the suspicion that Hitler, the consummate opportunist, wii- seeking a "deal" with the Soviet, in order to cut short the Hu.-ian u.u - .-o that he might fail with all his forces on Britain? Probahiv it was in'iiher, hut. rather hi.- sense of the inherent possibility of either or both of ihe.-e contingencies that determined him, a man of 67. who f..r more ih.m two .years has worked prodigiously and made man', lony joun !«•>.-, in the cause of his country, to undertake the most arduous anil dangerous journey of all. There has been no hint of a Rus.-ian collapse, no suggestion that tlicy will ever acknowledge defeat. The I {us. armies have fought for fourteen months with all their traditional tenacity and patriotism. They have most resolute leaders, who long ago foresaw this war against Germany and apparently also foresaw that, before it. ended the enemy would occupy great tracts of Russian territory. But perhaps the losses and sacrifices imposed upon the Ku.-.-ian people have been, or threaten imminently to become, greater even than they had calmly calculated; perhaps in their extremity they needed some assurance, more convincing than could be conveyed by diplomatic dispatches, of what they may expect of their ally Britain, and of the United States.

The mere presence In Moscow of the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and a representative of the President of the United States, would have a heartening effect in Russia at this time. Foreign visitors to Russia, other than conducted tourists, have been very few at any time; heads ol foreign Governments almost unknown. No statesman of the eminence and prestige of Mr. Churchill has been in Moscow since the Soviet experiment, began. But Mr. Churchill, it is revealed, was accompanied by the Chief ol the Imperial Staff and the Commander-in-Chief in India, and by American military representatives, and their presence provides a clue to the purpose of the mission. Its purpose was to discuss, and to reach decisions upon, the prosecution of the war to a victorious end. As its out* (ime. we are informed, both Governments repeated their determination to carry on the conflict with all the power and energy at their disposal. That resolution was expressed when Hitler launched his attack on Russia, but it must have been more difficult for the Soviet Government to reaffirm it in the circumstances of their country to-day. Military alliances, as Britain has had added reason in this war to know, can be broken. It was Hitlers purpose in peacetime to prevent them; it is his purpose in wartime to weaken them—to the end that he may destroy his enemies one by one. The result of the Moscow conference seems to afford us firm ground for hoping the most remarkable alliance modern times will endure.