BIG THREE POWERS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23115, 1 February 1945, Page 5

BIG THREE POWERS

Agreement On Basic War Aims

LONDON, January 30. In a talk to the American correspondents in Rome, Mr Harry Hopkins said that the basic war aims of the Big Three Powers were not in disagreement, although there were still many important details that needed ironing out. The handling of the vast territories recently over-run or liberated by the armies of the United Nations presented some very.thorny problems, and it was these, as much as with the equal conduct of the war, that the Big Three conference could concern itself. Once a firm believer in the “win the war first” policy, Mr Hopkins admitted that he was now convinced that the problems qf peace would not wait for the war to finish. Though he conceded the importance of relief supplies to the maintenance of peace in the liberated areas, he foresaw no solution of the shipping bottleneck before the war with Japan ended.

Mr Hopkins would make no positive statement regarding the Big Three conference, always using the phrase “when and if” they meet, but he said nothing to discourage the widespread assumption that such a conference was imminent. Mr Hopkins’s visit to Rome is not generally believed to have any significance regarding the place of the coming conference. Mr Hopkins said that M. Stalin would have to hurry back from the forthcoming Big Three talks, since he actually was director of the whole Russian strategy. He would not be able to be absent long from the Russian front. The Russians obviously were anxious to finish off the war, but it was not known either in Britain or America what power still lay in the Russian offensive or whether the Germans would be able to stem the tide. Mr Hopkins said he believed that complete agreement could easily be reached between the Big Three regarding plans for the . war againsit Japan, and the clearing up of undecided points at Dumbarton Oaks.

Mr Hopkins arrived in Rome yesterday from Paris for the purpose of gathering information from military, diplomatic and political leaders for President Roosevelt. He has left Rome for an unknown destination.