VICTORY ASSURED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24760, 7 December 1943, Page 3

VICTORY ASSURED

COMPLETE CONFIDENCE "ALL LOOSE ENDS TIED UP" HIGH SPIRITS AND OPTIMISM (Reed. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON. Dec. 5 "Never before in the whole course of the war have the Allied war leaders shown such complete confidence in the operations to come against Germany as that revealed in the joint communique," says the Exchange Telegraph correspondent. "In effect they say that an Allied victory is assured. "They have announced to the world that they have reached complete agreement on the scope and timing of operations which will be undertaken from the east, the west and the south. Their plans have been concerted. The final Allied,blow against Germany is about to fall. "Any slender hopes that Hitler and his gangsters may have had that the Moscow talks failed, that Marshal Stalin had thrown a spanner into the works, that there was dissension in the Allied ranks, have been smashed by the fact that Marshal Stalin's name appears on the most vital communique ever issued by three great Allies. "The communique in itself is a body blow against the rapidly crumbling German war machine. The three greatest Allied leaders, surrounded by military experts and political advisers, drew blue prints not only for the final terrific assault on Germany, but also for the peace to come. "It seems incredible that such vital decisions could be taken and such tremendous plans made with such speed, it reveals one vital thing—the complete understanding existing among the combined Allied chiefs of staff. All the little, loose ends have been tied up. "World press correspondents were not allowed to go to Teheran, but all officials said the same thing, namely, that never have there been such high spirits and optimism, such complete confidence, displayed from the start of a conference to the end by the three leaders. They made plain by their demeanour that there is now no chance of major reverses and that the war in Europe is nearing its end." COUNTRY OF RIVALRIES PERSIA'S RECENT HISTORY AGREEMENT WITH ALLIES Persia is one of the areas in which there was traditional rivalry for many years between Great Britain and Tsarist Russia. As Russia was suspected of designs on India, Persia was important as a route to Afghanistan and thus to the leading to the Indian plains. In tne early years of the present century Britain was concerned to support every Persian movement toward Western methods in government and commerce. Piracy was suppressed in the waters of the Persian Gulf and they were kept safe for navigation at considerable cost by the British Navy. At the same time Russian influence was at work in the north, and there was much intrigue, unofficial or semi-official, aimed at annexing border provinces. British and Russian rivalry was finally compromised by an agreement signed in_ 1907, hy which the country was divided into spheres of influence, a Russian portion in' the north, a British in the southeast, and a neutral area, as a buffer, in between. This was the position at the outbreak of war in 1914. Persia tried to remain neutral, but was occupied by Russian forces in the north and British in the south-east. The object of the one was to cover the Caucasus, and the other to check German and Turkish infiltration into India. This remained the position until the Russian revolution in 1917 led to disintegration of the occupying forces and Britain established a cordon throughout the country. A wave of anti-British feeling led, in 1921, to the signing of a treaty with Soviet Russia, the Bolshevik leaders having, in the meantime, relinquished all concessions in Persia and renounced anv imperialistic designs. With the outbreak of the present war German infiltration into Persia began on a large scale. Protests by Britain in 1940 and the early part of 1941 failed to move the Shah. After _ the British occupation of Irak, the situation in Persia became so menacing that in August, 1941, British troops entered the country from the west and Russian from the north, and Persian ships were sunk in the gulf. There was little fighting, and in a few days British and Russian conditions regarding the occupation of strategic points and the use of railways to carry material to Russia were accepted. Resistance bv the Shah to concurrent demands that German nationals should be expelled, coupled with his unpopularity in the country, led to his abdication in September. He was succeeded by the Crown Prince. Early in 1942 a treaty was signed between Persia, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. It embodied all the points in dispute when military action was taken against the Government of the previous Shah, guaranteed Persian independence, and contained an undertaking that Allied troops would be withdrawn not later than six months after the end of the war against the Axis. Since then Persia has been increasingly used as a channel fpr the supply of essential war material to Russia. JOURNALISTS COMPLAIN LONDON, Dec. r. A committee representing 70 Allied newspaper correspondents telegraphed to Mr. Brendan Bracken and Mr. Elmer Davis, Directors of Publicity for Britain and the United States respectively, unanimously expressing "complete dissatisfaction with the fashion in which public relations and press facilities for the Three-Power Conferences have been managed." . . Renter's correspondent in Cairo says the telegram complains that the correspondents have twice been let down regarding the safeguarding of news releases, also that many assurances which were given to the correspondents have not been honoured.