Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-09-17
History Written at Quebec;
Only Time Will Reveal If
Military Experts Satisfied With Results of
Roosevelt Churchill Conference;
Political Angle an Enigma.
By BAUKHAGE
Netcs analyst and Commentator.

$50 bedrooms, where some 300 mill
tary and technical experts were i'm
molated. Canadian Mounted police,
tough British marines and hetty Ca
madam veterans of Dieppe guarded
its portals. The inmates, like us,
were virtually incommunicad do.
When they dared take a one-day's
river trip one officer said, cit was
to prevent an outbreak of claustro-
phobia."
Invisible Ink
There is much we did not know
when we arrived. There is more we
still do not know of what occurred
after the conferees met. History
was written but it was written in
invisible ink.
Now some things can be told. In
the first place the event was, per-
haps purposely, perhaps unwilling
ly, played down in Washington in
advance. Before left the capital
I was assured the conference would
probably end about the Wednesday
a week before it did. l had hoped
for quiet half-week's vacation.
But no sooner had l arrived on the
Sunday preceding Roosevelt's ar
rival the next Tuesday, than I saw
we were all wrong. felt sure some
thing had happened when the Presi-
dent and the prime minister had
their preliminary talk at Hyde Park.
Something did, for l am sure there
had been no intention of producing
the parade of cabinet officers and
other brass hats who kept dropping
in from the skies and elsewhere one
after another. But I learned that
the length of the conference was
planned to a "t' by the President
long before it began. He knew it
would last precisely as long as it
did for he timed his Ottawa trip in
advance so he would be back in
Washington on August 26. He knew
what was coming and that is why he
slipped off for that fishing trip,
which was just that and nothing
more, ahead of the conference-it
was health measure pure and SIM
pie. Churchill and his midnight ci-
gars are something to prepare for,
the wee sma' hours are the big mo-
ments for this human dynamo.
Then the something" yet to be
revealed, happened. Churchill hailed
his foreign minister from London
and with him came not only Infor-
nation Minister Bracken, who
played no part as an informer but
nevertheless was of cabinet rank,
but also the permanent head of the
British foreign office, Sir Alexander
Cadogan with the accent on the
"dog" pronounced Though Secretary
Early could never quite master it)
dug"
Of course Hull had to appear to
match Eden; then another cabinet
member, Secretary of War Stimson
to match Bracken and then Score,
tary of the Navy Knox for good
measure, perhaps to give verisimili-
tude to the talk that the Pacific was
not being neglected. Then just be-
fore Stain made public his gesture
of withdrawal (recalling Litvinov),
T. V. Soong, Chinese foreign minis
ter more or less permanently in
stalled in Washington for some time
past, appeared. Then there was the
excuse that big drive on Burma
was in the wind.
The Big Drive
Meanwhile the press had blown
very hot and then very cold on an
immediate invasion of Europe from
Britain. I don't know whether the
reports that the big smash was COM
ing was a part of the Allied war of
nerves, but am sure that the folks
who threw cold water on it were
sincere in their belief it just couldn't
be started before spring.
l sat with a general whom 1 have
known for long time, real soldier
in World War l as well as in this
one. Here's what he had to say:
1--WE haven't got the men yet. We
must drop bombs upon bombs.
There is lot more softening up
to do
This man was on the periphery
not on the inside. l am sure that
the technical experts, the officers
and we had them all, probably the
greatest aggregation of military
brains and real experience, too, ever
assembled anywhere - they were
sure. They were certain. And when
the conference was over they were
satisfied. AS to the political side.
that is an enigma and will be one
as long as Russia remains one. And
that she is.