CONFERENCE IN MOSCOW

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24094, 2 November 1943, Page 5

CONFERENCE IN MOSCOW

Statement Expected Soon PRESS COMMENT IN LONDON (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 1. Diplomatic correspondents in London say it is only a matter of hours before the outcome of the three-Power conference in Moscow is made known. An official communique is expected from Moscow. “Mr Churchill, Mr Roosevelt, and Mr Stalin will meet in the very near future,” says the diplomatic correspondent of the “Daily Mail.” “The time and place are a secret, but it is possible that Mr Stalin will for the first time travel outside Russia to attend the meeting.” ‘‘lt is understood that an impatient world will have very little longer to wait before it learns from Moscow itself what was decided at the Moscow conference,” reports Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent. ‘‘ln the meantime the only authoritative disclosure remains that made by Mr Roosevelt on October 29. Mr Roosevelt gave no details. These, however, are supplied in abundance, particularly in the American press. ‘‘Completed pictures of Mr Roosevelt’s disclosures seem to fall into two categories: first, intelligent anticipation; and second, unqualified imagination. The first category includes such suggestions as an agreement to establish a permanent body to co-ordinate policy on a high level. The second category comprises any forecast of an Allied strategic time-table. It should be obvious that whatever strategic decisions have been made will be treated as vitally secret. No information and no comment will be forthcoming from British official quarters until the official account is issued from Moscow.” Though most of the London morning newspapers speculate about the outstanding success of the Moscow conference, the diplomatic correspondent of ‘‘The Times” says: “London is preserving complete silence, and is not even commenting on American reports of a: three-Power permanent commission being established here. When the Moscow announcements come, giving as many details as can be made public at this stage, the German leaders and people will find no loopholes, but a single massive wall.” Dinner at Kremlin Mr Stalin gave a dinner at the Kremlin on Saturday night in honour of Mr Eden and Mr Cordell Hull. There were 60 guests at the dinnex-, which was most friendly and informal. Toasts were drunk to the sth and Bth Armies, and also to Lieutenant-General Clark and General Montgomery. In a speech, Mr Stalin specially paid tribute to General Montgomery's and General Clark’s parts in the common war effort. Referring 1 to the Allied navies and merchant navies, Mr Stalin said: “We do not talk much about the navies, but we understand the task they are carrying out.” Six Allied spokesmen were present, and with the help of interpreters talked animatedly throughout the dinner. The toast list included Mr Stalin, Mr Roosevelt, and Mr Churchill; the armed forces of the three countries; victory, co-operation after victory; and the British and American Air Forces. One guest said it was difficult to describe the cordiality. “It was not just most convivial,” he said. “It was real friends and comrades in arms sitting down together after good work had been done.” Mr Stalin shook hands with the guests as they left the Kremlin at about 2.30 a.m., after a six hours’ visit. “Another plenary session of the three-Power conference was held yesterday,” says the Moscow correspondent of the British United “Experts attached to the delegations spent all day dealing with technical points arising from the meetings of the leaders.” Planning Joint Action “London, as a half-way house between Moscow and Washington, today becomes the United Nations’ coordinating centre,” says the “New York Times.” "In effect, the threePower conference is not breaking up, but is merely changing its personnel from the three Foreign Secretaries to their delegates, and moving to London where it will be established on a more or less permanent basis as an Allied Political Commission. The Russian Vice-Commissar for Foreign Affairs (Mr Vyshinsky) is expected to accompany Mr Eden to represent Mr Stalin and Mr Molotov. ,T Acceptance by the three Powers of the continuous planning principle for war and for post-war European reconstruction is considered the Moscow conference’s most important accomplishment. A British, American, and Russian decision to confer and agree on a policy for dealing with enemy and liberated countries has undoubtedly taken the political initiative from Hitler, just as the three countries’ armies and air forces have seized the military initiative in the last year.”

AMERICAN COAL STRIKE

THOUSANDS MORE MEN CEASE WORK

(Rec. 2 a m.) WASHINGTON, Nov. 1. The fourth major coal strike in the United States within six months, started to-day when thousands of miners joined the 115,000 men already striking. The truce under which the miners agreed to work without contract ended yesterday. It is estimated that the strike has already cost the war effort 100,000 tons of iron and steel.

GERMANY’S HOME FRONT LONDON, Oct. 31. Defeatism and apathy are spreading throughout Germany, according to reports from neutral sources. Reuter’s correspondent in Zurich states that all press and private reports from Germany confirm that the sense of defeat is spreading rapidly. The “Easier Nachrichten” says that the fact that leading German papers are now writing at length on defeatism shows that the Government attaches great importance to this mass psychosis, the real grip of which, on all sections of the population, is now realised. Reuter’s correspondent in Stockholm says that Germany is entering the blackest month of the war with the home front in a progressive state of disintegration. He says that the Gestapo leaders are powerless to check the all-pervading apathy and defeatism which is resulting in a decline in war production.