REQUESTS FOR AID

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 83, 4 October 1941, Page 9

REQUESTS FOR AID

BRITISH AND U.S. DELEGATES

IMPRESSED

ALLIED CONFIDENCE

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.) LONDON, October 2. Though discretion is necessary concerning the actual goods Britain and the United States have promised to Russia, they can be said to include large amounts of munitions, arms, machine tools, and raw materials, says a special correspondent of "The Times" in Moscow. One of the most important results of the conference has been the reaffirmation to Britain and America of Russia's determination to fight to the end. Wild talk about Moscow keeping the door open for peace can be emphatically discounted while M. Stalin remains at the head of the Government. Another result has been a renewal of confidence of the English-speaking world over Russia's ability to maintain the struggle and resist the furious German attacks. The visiting missions were- greatly impressed with the moderation cf the Russian requirements, which apparently demonstrates the success with which the country's economy has been able to withstand and absorb the shock of the initial German impact. The modesty of the Russian requests was one of the chief contributory factors in the swiftness with which the conference was concluded. To this may be added the careful preliminary preparations in London and Washington and M. Stalin's continual willingness to cut through red tape and discuss hard facts at any hour with Lord Beaverbrook and Mr. Harriman. How the payments are to be made is not announced, but this was not a vital feature of the discussions. STRATEGIC TALKS. "The Times" says in a leading article: *This transmission or exchange of the means of making war is not adequately described by the phrase 'help to Russia.' There has been a council of war in Moscow among the staff of the combined forces operating against a single enemy. Its immediate response has been to devise a plan for making the maximum resources of the confederacy available at whatever segment qf the common line the battle may be most critical. Thus the essential purpose of the conference was not commercial, but strategic. The limits of contribution from the British Empire and the United States are more likely to be set by considerations of transport than of production. "Very great differences in social structure and political thought divide the three members of the confederacy. The growth of mutual understanding which will flow from the process of combined action will moderate the difIferences, though doubtless it will not | obliterate them entirely. I "We have already learned that these J differences are of quite another order I from those which divide us from Hitlerism. Our common detestation of that barbarous creed has brought home to us what we have in common with our new brothers in arms."