Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1943. TIME TO CLEAR THE AIR
an immense amount of preliminary talk, ami of wideranging' speculation which, with or without justification, has caused a good deal ol anxiety and loreboding, conferences between representatives of Britain, the United States and Iviissia on war and post-w*ar policy seem at length to be assured. A British Official Wireless message yesterday stated that there now seems to be little doubt that the Three-Power Foreign Ministers’ Conference will be held in Moscow in the latter part of this month. That conference is intended to prepare the way for a meeting in the near future of Mr Churchill, President Roosevelt and Marshal Stalin —a meeting the outcome of which will affect greatly the future, not only of the nations immediately represented, but of humanity at the widest view. To take account only of the obstacles and differences that stand in the way of full agreement between the English-speaking nations and the Soviet Union might be tantamount to assuming that the impending conferences must end in failure. Even in regard to the co-ordination of war policy ideas are far from being completely in harmony, though it is perhaps not too much to hope that points of difference in this category are being narrowed as tlie war extends. Where vital aspects of post-war European settlement are concerned, it has yet to appear, that the beginning of understanding and agreement have been approached. Whatever the difficulty of the problems raised, in regard, for example, to Poland, some of the Balkan and other small European States, and to the post-war control of Germany, it is certainly desirable that these problems should as soon as possible be discussed frankly by responsible representatives of Russia and the English-speaking nations. There is much to be said for the view expressed in the message received from Britain yesterday that “only with a full understanding among the greater Powers can the dependent problems be expected to fit into their place without confusion.” It evidently must be hoped that maximum efforts will be made by the representatives of the three Powers to reach understanding and agreement on essentials. A failure, like that which followed the world war of a quarter of a century ago, to lay the foundations of effective international organisation would go far to demonstrate that civilised humanity is incapable of safeguarding future peace—in other words, that civilisation is doomed. The root question to be determined at the coming conferences is whether the three most powerful of the United Nations can agree to follow up their combined effort for victory by combined action to uphold and safeguard peace when it has been attained. What is needed from them is a practical lead to all nations peacefully inclined in well-organised action directed to policing the world against future aggression. If they are able to give that lead a good deal will at once be done to open the way to a solution of all dependent and subsidiary problems, as well as to wide measures of international co-operation. The only obvious alternative is to allow the world to fall back into the conditions out of which the last war and the present war arose. Without exaggeration it may be believed that the conferences for which arrangements arc now far advanced will be the most momentous ever held in the known history of the world.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 October 1943, Page 2
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563Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1943. TIME TO CLEAR THE AIR Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 October 1943, Page 2
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