The Evening Star SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1945. THE "BIG THREE."

Evening Star, Issue 25400, 3 February 1945, Page 6

The Evening Star SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1945. THE "BIG THREE."

The' conference of the " Big Three " —Mr Churchill, Marshal Stalin, and President Roosevelt—which ' has begun somewhere in the Middle East will have the significance of a meeting of the Fates for Germany. In December, 1943, the "Big Three" held their meeting at Teheran, when the arrangements were made for " D " Day, whose resounding success was won six months later. A few days before Mr Churchill, Mr Roosevelt, and Marshal Chiang Kai-shek had met in Cairo, to make plans for the Japanese war. The report on the Teheran conference stated that full and complete understanding was reached at its sessions as to the scope and timing of the attack on Germany, which would be from the east, west, and south. Unshakable confidence in final victory was expressed, the aim being the entire destruction of the German forces. That consummation lias • been brought almost to completion in the months that have since elapsed. • The Allies are now fight. ing on German soil. It is over one wide plain, giving ample room for their armies' deployment and with rivers that can be frozen for their convenience, that the Russians are now making their advance. The- redoubts will require to be very strong, the strategy unusually gifted, and the fighting spirit of the sorely-tried German armies extraordinary, before all these combined can stop them. The issue does not rest, however, with the Russians alone. On a front fraught, for a great part of its length, with more natural difficulties the British, Americans, and French are. waging their conflict, and the need now is to co-ordinate the blows from both sides so that the Reich will have tl:e least possible opportunity of opposing its chief strength to its enemies singly, instead of simultaneously, postponing thus the collapse that is inevitable. There have been limits, thus far, to co-ordin-ation. A correspondent has written: " Whatever understanding there mis he on a high political level, there is still no effective liaison between the Russian. British, and American armies. Our generals do not know when the Russians are going to attack, or where, or what their objectives are.. General Eisenhower receives no' news from Moscow of the Russians' intentions. . . . The various British. Russian, and American military missions that have gone hack and forth have simply exchanged tactical information. No general coordinated'plan for the western and eastern fronts has yet been worked- out. All this may be expected to he amended bv the conference that is now taking place. There are political questions also to he adjusted, including that of the rival Polish Governments, one, on Polish soil, recognised by the Soviet, and the other, in London, still recognised by Russia's allies. These. Polish questions, including that of boundaries, were expected to be almost the main subject of the conference, hut their importance will'have shrunk since practically the whole of Poland has been liberated by the Soviet's forces. In those matters, as Mr Churchill has recognised, Marshal Stalin will havo his way. General de Gaulle may have a grievance that heis not attending the conference, hut there is no doubt that, in the resettlement of Europe, French opinions, will have all consideration given to them. In his speech pf a fortnight ago Mr Churchill said that he had the greatest hopes of a conference between himself, President Roosevelt, and Marshal Stalin. There is no cause to doubt but that those hopes will be justified. |