Evening Post TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1942. ALLIES RENEW VOWS" IN MOSCOW

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 42, 18 August 1942, Page 4

Evening Post TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1942. ALLIES RENEW VOWS" IN MOSCOW

Allies, in a world Avar, are frequently faced with military questions that require joint decisions; and it is not at all astonishing that the British Prime Minister should go to Moscow, with a United States representative, in order that big decisions shall be made by the highest authorities. Evidently the President of the United States knew the limits, high and low, of the proposals that Mr. Churchill was prepared to make in Moscow, for the President's representative, Mr. Harriman s said: ■ , The President of the United states will agree to all decisions taken by Mr. Churchill. Americans will stand hand and hand together with the Russians. That is to say, the President of the Soviet Republic and the Prime Minister of Britain exchanged cheques, and Britain's * cheques had President Roosevelt's endorsement. Some of the cheques exchanged must have represented the respective contributions of Britain and Russia to big military decisions, for the communique states that - the decisions "covered the field of war against Hitlerite Germany and her associates in Europe." The presumption is that they do not concern eastern Asia; their objective is "the complete destruction of Hitlerism .or any similar tyranny." The effect of such military decisions is, of course, not published. But the meeting of Churchill and Stalin was staged in a manner which conveys the impression of an alliance that is built to long outlast the. German; storm, and which can still implement the military purposes of the alliance by solemn covenant completed in the Moscow from which Napoleon retreated and Avhich Hitler expected to occupy on a'date long gone by.

Although the military decisions are "against Hitlerite Germany and her associates in Europe," the war against Germany and her associates long ago extended into Africa, and the German army hopes to extend it into western Asia. It>is therefore to be expected that the British forces in the Middle East and India should be represented at the Moscow meeting by General Wavell and Air Chief Marshal Sir Archibald Tedder, also by the Com-mander-in-Chief of the American Forces in Egypt, Major-General Maxwell. The essential unity of Anglo-American warfare in the Middle East and of the Russo-German warfare is thus proclaimed. The unifying of war fronts, in the Occident and in the Orient, would be further advanced if Japan attacked Russia in eastern Asia. "Pertinax" had timed this clash for the middle of August, anticipating action by Japan about that date. But instead.of an attack by Japan on Russia's eastern Asian territory, there has been an amphibious offensive—limited but hard-hitting—by the Allies in the Solomon Islands, followed by this historic political meeting in Moscow; Was "Pertinax" wrong in his timing, or has Japanese action been merely postponed by inconvenient circumstances? Certain it is that Mr. Churchill's visit to Moscow will interest Tokio as well as Berlin.

In leaving Moscow, and in thanking Mr. Stalin for Russian hospitality, Mr. Churchill is reported as saying: "I am highly satisfied that I visited Moscow. First; because it was my duty to speak my mind; and, second, because I am sure our contacts will be useful for our common cause." To a great extent the value of personal contacts lies in the forceful character jof the personalities that are brought I together. Judged from this standpoint, the meeting of two men of the personal calibre of Churchill and Stalin is clearly a meeting of import-• | ance, for they are the time-tried leaders of world Powers, brought together by a destiny which could not have been foreseen five years ago or even fifteen months ago. Although it has been stated above that, from the political point of view, there is nothing astonishing in the meeting of the chief executives of two allies for the purpose of implementing the alliance, from any other point of view the meeting is intensely dramatic. It contrasts sharply with the Hitler timetables of 1940 (which included London) and of 1941, which included Moscow. Hitler can be in the foothills of the Caucasus, and yet his foes can meet in Moscow to plan his overthrow. All Hitler's military might, bestriding Europe from north to south, cannot prevent the British Prime Minister from going to Moscow via Africa, contacting there General Smuts, who represents in Cairo the legitimate aspirations of a white South Africa.

This aerial Odyssey, drawing together Anglo-Saxon and Slav, will live in the history of both races, nor will it be ignored when the worldwide co-operation of both of them with America has to be recorded in terms not only of war-winning but of post-war adjustment and a permanent peace.