FINAL PHASE QUEBEC CONFERENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 43, 19 August 1943, Page 5

FINAL PHASE QUEBEC CONFERENCE

BIG THINGS EXPECTED (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) NEW YORK, August 17. The Quebec correspondent of the Associated Press says that the war conference entered its second week amid strong indications that the unique, manner in which it is being handled is deliberately designed to intensify Axis nervousness concerning the major military developments which were predicted by President Roosevelt. Mr. Dana Doten, representing the Offlce of War Information, described the conference as the greatest gathering of military experts ever held. In addition to the highest ranking military officials, officers directly responsible for the practical planning of major Allied operations have been brought together, most of whose names are not able to be released in order to avoid disclosures valuable to. the enemy.

That Pacific strategy is not being neglected is clearly indicated, says the Canadian Press Association, by the presence among the war planners of Colonel Emmett O'Donnell, an American flying expert from the Far East.

Colonel O'Donnell. who served in Hawaii, the Philippines, and China, told a Press conference that Japan could be defeated only by the combined land, sea. and air forces. He expressed the view that the' Japanese were still able to replace all their plane losses, but that all their planes, including the Zeros, were definitely inferior to those of the Allies. ALTERNATIVE PROJECTS. President Roosevelt's arrival in Quebec carries the conference to the second and final phase, the discussions starting tomorrow, says the "New York Times" 'correspondent. It is believed that major political decisions were already reached at Hyde Park. "As far as military decisions are concerned, a great many alternative plans and projects were admittedly prepared by experts, from which Mr. Churchill and President Roosevelt will make a choice," says the correspondent. "It will be a grave decision, on the Tightness of which the lives and fortunes of every man and woman on earth will depend. Something just as dramatic as the African campaign, if not more so, has clearly been planned down to the last detail. Observers expect more from the conference than from any previous meeting between Messrs. Churchill and Roosevelt."

It is authoritatively stated that the Quebec conference will accept the French Committee of Liberation as a "temporary authority for free overseas French territories, but not as an instrument for the provisional government of France," says' the Washington correspondent of the "New York Times." It is understood that President Roosevelt anticipates that, following the liberation of France, elections will be held to choose a representative Government and that, pending the elections, the relations between the civil authorities and the Allied forces moving into France will be similar to those in North Africa. It is realised in Washington that this decision will not satisfy the French Committee.

The' Allied occupation forces in Italy will establish a military government on the same lines as in Sicily, but it is expected that a Government expressing the will of-the people will- be chosen at the polls during the occupation, t