Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1943. AGREEMENT IN MOSCOW.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1943. AGREEMENT IN MOSCOW.

AN announcement by President Roosevelt that the Threed ower conference in .Moscow has been a tremendous success both in concrete items of agreement and in the spirit in which discussion has been conducted, is heartening as it bears on the conduct of the war and on the prospect' of united action to safeguard and uphold peace when the war has been won. At its face value the President’s statement may be taken to mean that there is every reasonable assurance of broad understanding and continuing collaboration between Russia and the English-speaking nations.

There, is, of course, no suggestion that the conference of Foreign Ministers in Moscow has led to a final and comprehensive settlement of all even of the principal military, political, economic, territorial and other questions in which the three nations are concerned and in regard to which thej have individual viewpoints—in some instances not easily to be leconciled. The conference now concluding was preliminary in character and avowedly was intended to prepare the- way lor an eatly meeting of Messrs Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. Otliei meetings no doubt will follow.

The success of the initial conference is to be welcomed not only on account of the concrete items of agreement to which President Roosevelt referred, but as a hopeful beginning on tasks' of international collaboration which may be expected to stretch indefinitely into the future. It is hardly possible to envisage the attainment of conditions in which Britain, the United 3 States and Russia would find themselves in complete agreement and perfect harmony on all international issues. What is°being and should be striven for, however, is agreement on the essentials of future peace and security.

Apart from the present conflict between aggressor nations and their intended victims, many questions are raised or will arise which would have been incapable of stable and satisfactory settlement under the world conditions hitherto ruling. Examples in point are reported demands by Russia for access to the Atlantic and the. Mediterranean, the definition of the frontiers of Poland and other countries and suggested groupings of secondary European States.

Whatever the difficulties they present individually, however, all questions of this kind will be made easier of solution if, under the leadership and guidance of the three Poxvers represented at the Moscow conference, all peaceful nations are enabled to combine in establishing guarantees of peace, particularly by providing for instant combined action against any future attempt at aggression.

Precisely what has been agreed upon at the Moscow, conference is meantime a matter of conjecture but President Roosevelt’s announcement can be taken to mean nothing else than that a foundation has been laid for extended co-operation, looking not only to the winning of the war, by concerted efforts to hasten the defeat and unconditional surrender of Germany, but to the institution of a reign of law in world affairs. Agreement between Russia and the English-speaking nations plainly is indispensable if continued and hopeful progress is to be made towards that goal. On what it appears to have done in helping to opQn the way to a great improvement in international relationships, the Moscow conference may stand out in future and far-distant days as a landmark in history. •