Evening star., 1943-10-31
Liqht From Moscow

| IiSHt TTOTn NOSCOW
President Roosevelt's comment on
the Moscow conference was some
what of delphic utterance, but it
undoubtedly means that something
tangible has been accomplished. The
President would not have spoken so
positively and so encouragingly if
Mr.. Hull, Mr.. Eden and Mr.. Molotov
had agreed only to disagree. Mr..
Roosevelt is too experienced prac-
tical psychologist not to know that
a deadlock or failure in the Moscow
negotiations could not be hidden un-
der soothing generalities. and that
popular disappointment and disil-
luslonment would be proportionately
intense. He must, therefore, have
something positive and pleasing on
which to base his enthusiastic
assurances.
AS matter of fact. the President
amplified considerably his general
Characterization of the Moscow
meeting as tremendous success. He
went on to state that definite agree
mentS had been made, that the sign
ing Of the documents embodying
those agreements is all that remains
to be done and that as soon as the
documents are signed they will be
made public in Moscow. The logical
Interpretation of these statements is
that the agreements are diplomatic
and political rather than military in
character. This inference is
strengthened by Mr.. Roosevelt's fur
ther remarks that the documents
will bear on the conferences objec-
tive. which is unanimity among the
United States, Great Britain and
Soviet Russia during the war and
the transition period thereafter.
Agreements Of a purely military
character would almost certainly not
be published under any conditions,
no matter what the degree of
unanimity that had been attained
Another revealing statement of
the Presidents was that the Moscow
conference has been successful. not
only because of concrete accomplish
mentS, but also for the spirit it en-
gendered, You learn things in con-
ferring, the President continued.
You get the other fellows point of
view, and perhaps you get some good
ideas out of them and maybe you
are able to impress the other fellow
with the fact that you have some
ideas. Then the effort is made to
get an agreement-by swapping,
perhaps
This is sound sense. Mr.. Roosevelt
did we'll to emphasize what some
commentators have overlooked
that the basic aim of the Moscow
conference was to have meeting of
minds and try to lay the basis for
ultimate decisions which could be
made, not by the Foreign Ministers,
who are essentially agents, but
rather by their principals, who are
President Roosevelt, Prime Minister
Churchill and Premier Stain. The
present conference was, therefore,
from the first, exploratory and ten
tative in character, designed to
evolve a pattern and method of
negotiation which could be success
fully supplemented and perfected by
the heads of government themselves.
If this has been even measurably
achieved, it is good news indeed and
the present conference was rightly
termed by the President a success.
That is all that can legitimately be
said in comment so long as the
promised documents remain unpub-
lished. The ultimate test will pre-
sumably be an actual meeting of
the Big Three" We may be sure
that they will not meet unless the
groundwork for definite agreement
between them has been laid beyond
any reasonable doubt of dissent on
essential matters.