Evening star., 1943-08-14

tween President Roosevelt and
Prime Minister Churchill.
Somehow I feel that this vacant
chair is going to get more than .
paragraph of mention In the his
tory books of the future. I'm not
alone in that belief. either. Most
Of the people with whom I talked
In England managed somehow to
get around to mentioning that va
cant chair. The same Is true Of
the Americans to whom I have
talked.
Why was Stains chair vacant at
Casablanca? Why was 1t vacant In
the meetings at Washington7 Why
will 1t be vacant at the Quebec
meeting?
Hint Would Have Done IL.
1t is my guess that Stain could
have wangled himself an invitation,
A hint here, . hint there IN the
right places, undoubtedly would
have resulted in his being Asked to
join the discussion between Mr..
Roosevelt and Mr.. Churchill. Some
thing tells me that he wouldn't
have been kicked around, either.
had he decided to I'LL that vacant
chair at last.
Russian peasant though he Is,
I'll bet he would have been given a
place at any dinners where he could
reach as much white meat as any
one else. They wouldn't have
tucked him down at the foot, or
made him eat second table In the
kitchen. And at any military con-
ferences I'll wager that his chair
would have been so placed that he
wouldn't have to yell to make him
self heard.
But the fact remains, his chair
has never been occupied.
He has offered but one excuse for
his absence. He sent word to the
Casablanca conference that he was
too busy directing the Red armies.
That couldn't have set very well
with Mr.. Roosevelt and Mr.. Church.
Ill, because at the time they were
busy, too, directing the British and
American armies.
AS a matter Of fact. the Presi-
dent and the Prime Minister must
be just little annoyed at Stain.
That is, If they're human, and both
have almost gone out of their way
to stress the fact that they are.
Reduce it to the scale of the little
folk and 1t Is Just as If you and I
had a series of parties and kept
asking an important neighbor to
attend them and he never came. He
just never came or offered an ex-
cuse we knew was valid.
Never Dropped In.
The thing that would bother you
and me In such situation would
be the fact that We knew he was
our professed good neighbor, yet had
to admit to ourselves that we didn't
know what was really going on In
his mind that kept him from being
more friendly with us on the sur
face.
We did all the neighborly things.
When he needed something We
lent it to him. He disliked the same
people we disliked. Yet he never
dropped in in the evening, pulled
up a chair before the fire, and
openly discussed the neighborhood
problems. He never said, Listen,
when we get rid of the undesirable
element In our neighborhood, here's
the way we'll run things after that"
To be honest about it, millions of
people here and in England are
wondering If Stain ever will at
tend a conference until the final one
comes along. They are wondering,
too, what he will have to say when
he speaks his piece on the peace.
They are wondering If Roosevelt
and Churchill will have to revive
the old vaudeville skit when Stain
enters the peace chamber and saw
to him: Hello, Joe. what do you
know"
distributed by McNausht Syndicate, Incl