Evening star., 1943-12-07
Teherun War Council

The official communique from
Teheran-a city that is no stranger
to the tides of history-tells dis
appointingly little of the most sig
nificant war council of modern
times.
This disappointment is due in
part to faulty staging of tremen-
dously dramatic event. President
Roosevelt. Prime Minister Churchill
and Premier Stain had travelled
many thousands of miles to keep
their rendezvous. They sat down
together-the President and the
Russian Premier meeting for the
first time-as the greatest of all
wars was sweeping to climax. Be-
yond any doubt, the fate of millions
turned on the decisions to be taken
by these three. Yet the communi-
que, when it came, was disappoint-
ing. To some extent it's effect had
been blunted by clumsily handled
publicity, Probably a worldwide
audience hoped for more from this
first meeting than was reasonable to
expect. And there was always the
danger of giving information to an
enemy who would scrutinize every
word and line for a hint of what
the future holds for him.
When all of this is said, however,
the joint statement Of the three
Allied leaders is meaningful-both
in what it says and in what it re-
trains from saying.
Overshadowing all else is the. fact
that in the fifth year of war in Eu-
rope the heads of the three states
carrying the burden of that fight
have met at last, and have parted
as friends "in fact, in spirit and in
purpose No one will better under
stand the portentous meaning of
those words than Adolf Hitler him
self, for they strike down his most
deadly weapon-the policy of divide
and conquer which he employed
so effectively in the days when he
was winning his cheapest victories.
II he cannot split these three great
powers arrayed against him his last
hope is gone-and he knows it. Had
the meeting at Teheran produced
nothing more than this it would
have been worth all the time and
effort that has gone into it. But
the welding of firm friendship was
not all
On the military side the three
men reached complete agreement"
as to the scope and timing of the
operations to be undertaken from
the east. west and south. This
should mean that commitments
have been made which satisfy Stain
on the troublesome second front"
issue. Whether this agreement en-
braces an invasion of western Eu-
rope remains to be seen. but it is a
virtual certainty that new blows will
be struck-blows which will under
write the guarantee of victory con-
tained in the communique
OF equal interest and Importance
are the diplomatic maneuvers. At
no point does this latest statement
even mention unconditional sur
render" r"-apparently a concession to
the Russians. The stated military
objective Is the destruction of the
German armies, the U-boats and the
war plants. There is nothing here
to deny hope for the future to the
German people-an outlook quite
different from that held forth to the
Japanese after the Cairo meeting
with Chang Kai-shek The three
leaders, In their statement on Iran,
specifically reafflrm their adherence
to the Atlantic Charter. Finally,
the people Of "all nations"
large as we'll as the small and the
vanquished if they repudiate tyr
amy as we'll as the victors-are
warmly invited to Join the postwar
world family of democratic nations.
All Of this is a long step forward
1t seemingly disposes of military
issues and charts the postwar future
a little more clearly Gradually,
from the Atlantic Charter to Te-
heran, the Allies are getting on with
the winning of the war and the
planning Of the peace. AS against
their great accomplishments, the
minor failures and the little disap-
pointments are of no real i'm