AIR OF MYSTERY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 January 1943, Page 4

AIR OF MYSTERY

0 - SURROUNDING CASABLANCA TALKS ACCORDING TO SOME COMMENTATORS MUCH MAY HAVE BEEN CONCEALED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day/ 11 a.m.) . LONDON, January 27. ■■ A conviction is growing among those who were present at the Roosevelt-Churchill Press Conference that the leaders dealt wit more than the ‘unconditional surrender’ statement,” says the British United Press Algiers correspondent. “President Roosevelt would not have dared to risk a 6000miles plane journey merely for a heart-to-heart talk with Mr. Churchill, and to review past and coming events. The Anglo-Ameri-can combined staffs could have done that without the presence of the leaders. “An air of mystery surrounded the meetings from the first,” the correspondent adds. “There were rumours that Italian, Spanish and even Finnish and Turkish delegates were present. It was suggested that these representa-: tives were not to be invited to join the Allies, but were to be shown the might of the United Nations and left to make up their minds about which side to join,” The “Daily Mail’s” correspondent, Mr G. Ward Price, says close observation of the personages principally concerned revealed an air of secret satisfaction which was hardly justified by what was given to. the world. The “Star,” in a leader, says: “We have some regrets about the conference. The long-desired United Nations permanent contact council is still lacking. In addition,, somethinng more definite than a handshake between the French generals is needed before the unhappy political situation in North Africa can be straightened out.” “The conference completed plans for the 1943 campaign, but has fallen short of prophecies coming from Washington during ijhe past week,” says the “Daily Herald.” “The decisions taken and announced are in the interests of all; yet an impression remains that a closer unification of strategy between Britain, the United States, Russia and China is possible, and urgently desirable.” The “New, York Times” refers to President Roosevelt’s visit to Casablanca as a bold and brilliant stroke of leadership. “The historian writing many years from now,’ it says, “is certain to conclude that Mr. Roosevelt’s voyage was in fact a token act that sealed the inescapable participation of the United States in world affairs.” GREAT IMPRESSION MADE IN LONDON. , BY NEWS OF CASABLANCA MEETING. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.32 a.m.) RUGBY, January 27. The great news of the meeting of Mr. Churchill and President Roosevelt has made an enormous impression in London. The time and place of the meeting would have sufficed to indicate that this was a council of historic moment, says “The Times,” apart from the long'list of names of the highest ranking officers who accompanied the leaders. “The Times” adds: “President Roosevelt crossed the ocean to make good a promise he uttered long before his country entered the war —that civilisation should not be allowed to perish. The meeting of Generals Giraud and de Gaulle looks far ahead to a day when all France shall be free, while its immediate promise is for a resolution of the confused politics of North Africa. Casablanca would hardly have been chosen as the place of assembly j if this were not also an immediate pre-. occupation of the wider conference. On the swift expulsion of the enemy from his remaining strongholds in Tunisia depends every plan for a reduction of the European fortress in 1943.”

“The Times” considers that the Üboat menace must also have been one of the major subjects discussed. “Provided only this deadly menace is warded off,” it states, “the Allied leaders are able to go forward into the new Year with a certainty that the war for ■survival is ended and that a war for victory and for the creation of a new world has begun.”

The “Daily Telegraph” says: “The task of the conference has been to drive on the wheel of fortune, now revolving in the right direction, to the point of the enemy’s unconditional surrender.”

The “Daily Mail” says: “For its length and thoroughness there has been nothing like this meeting in military or political annals.”