MUCH EXPECTED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1943, Page 3

MUCH EXPECTED

AS OUTCOME OF ALLIED DISCUSSIONS

QUEBEC MEETINGS

GIVING AXIS REASONS FOR NERVOUSNESS. MILITARY AND POLITICAL ISSUES. .'By Telegraph-Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, August 17. The Quebec correspondent of the Associated Press says that the war conference entered its second week amid strong indications that the unique manner in which it is being handled is deliberately designed to intensify Axis nervousness concerning the major military developments which were predicted by President Roosevelt. Mr Dana Doten, representing the Office of War Information, described the conference as the greatest gathering of military experts ever held. In addition to the highest ranking military officials, officers directly responsible for the practical planning of major Allied operations have been brought together, most of whose names arc not able to be released to avoid disclosures valuable to the enemy. The Canadian Press Association says that Pacific strategy is not being neglected is clearly indicated by the presence among the war planners of Colonel Emmett O'Donnell, American flying expert from the Far East. It is authoritatively stated that the Quebec conference will accept the French Committee of Liberation as a. “temporary authority for free overseas French- territories, but not as an instrument for the provisional government, of France,” says the Washington correspondent of the “New York Times.” It is understood that President Roosevelt anticipates, following the liberation of France, that elections will be held to choose a representative Government and, pending the elections, the relations between the civil authorities and the Allied forces moving into France will be similar to those in North Africa. It is realised in Washington that this decision will not satisfy the French Committee. The Allied occupation forces in Italy will establish military government on the same lines as in Sicily, but it is expected that a Government expressing the will of the people will be chosen at the polls during the occupation

Colonel O’Donnell, who served in Hawaii, the Philippines and China, told a Press conference that Japan could be defeated only by the combined land, sea and air forces. He expressed the view that the Japanese were still able to replace all their plane losses, but all their planes, including the Zeros, were definitely inferior to those of the Allies.

President Roosevelt’s arrival in Quebec carries the conference to a second and final phase, the discussions starting tomorrow, says. the “New York Times” correspondent. It is believed that major political decisions were already reached at Hyde Park. As far as military. decisions are concerned, a great many alternative plans and projects were admittedly prepared by experts, from which Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt will make a choice. It will be a grave decision, on the rightness of which the lives and fortunes of every man and woman on earth depend. Something just as dramatic as the African campaign, if not more so, has clearly been planned down to the last detail. Observers expect more from the conference than from any previous meeting between Messrs. Churchill and Roosevelt.