LEADERS' TALKS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24950, 24 June 1942, Page 5

LEADERS' TALKS

SATISFACTORY PROGRESS STRATEGIC PROBLEMS (Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, June 22. "The conferences between Mi Churchill and President Roosevelt are continuing in a very satisfactory way." said the President's secretary, Mr Stephen Early, at a press conference He added that neither Mr Churchill nor President Roosevelt felt that they had reached a point in their talks where a public statement could made, but as soon as that point wajreached one would be forthcoming. Mr Churchill and the President were also holding numberous " off the record" talks with military, naval and air experts. Mr Early characterised the reports that the commander-in-chief of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Lieu-tenant-general A. G. McNaughton, was favoured as commander of the second front, as " highly speculative." According to well-informed circles in Washington, Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt are at last in full agreement on the necessity for massing their strength where it will count most. As viewed from Washington, there exists a four-cornered line-up on the question of a second front. The British Government is reported to be more cautious than the United States, while the British public are more impatient than the American public. Observers feel that a certain misconception over the whole issue still persists—the impression that a second front has been promised for some time in 1942, though the White House announcement on June 6 merely mentioned an agreement on the necessity for a second front in 1942, not on its realisation this year.