The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-08-23

conference will be announced. That
climax is being given a terrific pub
Lefty buildup. More than 100 news
paper men, photographers and radio
Spielers are here, assembled dellber-
ately to convey the big news, what
ever it turns out to be, at the cor
rect psychological moment, to
world figuratively sitting on the
edge of it schair. waiting bug-eyed
and elephant-eared, nerves all a.
twitter, fingernails cheWed right
down to the knuckles. If the news
at the end isn't actually world
shaking, for the United Nations as
we'll as the Axis, the Quebec Con-
ference will go down as the biggest
bust in history.
To get yourself in the proper
frame of mind for receiving the
the breath-taking news that must
come out of the Quebec Conference,
get firmly fixed in your minds eye
the setting of the stage:
The whole affair is being con-
Quoted on tire levels-lower, higher
and highest-by some 400 American,
British and Canadian staff officsre,
politicians and advisers. The lower
level part of 1t Is the duty OF the
pick and shovel officers who do all
the work. A small group Of experts
on some one phase of military oper-
atoms is given a particular task to
do, and sometimes it is done with
out knowledge of what the men in
the next room are working on.
The higher level part of it is the
geenrals and admirals - Marshall,
King, Arnold, Pound, Portal and
their gold braided ilk-who tell the
lower levels what to figure out, then
okay it or more often send 1t back
to be done over.
At the highest level are Roosevelt
and Churchill, with maybe Mac
kenIe King of Canada thrown in
for good measure on some phases,
who will okay and announce what
the higher levels have told the lower
levels to figure out.
Quebec, itself, is like that, too. Up
on the highest level, hundreds of
feet above the st. Lawrence river,
in the old citadel which is the
summer residence of Canada'S Gov
ernor General, are the apartments
Of Mackenzie King, Churchill and
Roosevelt, the highest.
A hundred feet or more below the
citadel Is the Chateau Frontenac.
8OO-room Canadian Pacific Hotel
which has been taken over by the
higher level and the lower level per-
sonnet, for living quarters and
workroom. The steeply gabled green
Norma rnoof and top floors of the
Chateau tower overlook the citadel
and the Plains of Abraham be-
You'd. The higher the admiral or
general. the higher his room in the
tower, with the very highest of the
higher being on the Royal former.S
the thirteenth floor. 1t was re-
named when the King and Queen
visited Canada, just before the war.
There was some difficulty in NOV
ing out all the regular guests of the
hotel in preparation for this con-
ference. Some of them had ben liv-
ing there for years, paying their
bills on time. But governments are
footing the bills for the conference
now and nobody inside the Chateau
pays directly for any of the regular
hotel services. The checks are just
signed with name and room num-
Der. Some place, sometime, some
how, some taxpayer eventually will
foot the bill.
Everything that goes on inside
the hotel Is big military secret,
but the impression that the Chateau
is surrounded by guards three deep
police, Canadian soldiers and the
Mounties-iS all wrong. You can
walk right up to the Chateau and
touch 1t. You can walk all around
it, in fact and peek in at the base
ment windows. There you will see,
on the east side, the laundry, with
French Canadian girls running
ironing machines to smooth out the
clean sheets and shirts and table
linen for the fine people upstairs.
On the other side, you look in
window and see the valet shop, with
long rows of uniforms - white,
khaki, blue and gray. all pressed
and waiting to be delivered to their
handsome soldier, sailor and air.
man WearerS.
Or you even can walk through the
north portals which are imposing
enough to look as though they
might lead to some interesting
place, but whic hturn out to lead
only past the service entrance. At
one door, you actually can look in
and see the time-clock where the
walters and chambermaids and
bellhops and busboys check them
selves in and out from their days