Evening star., 1945-12-09
The Moscow Meeting

eign Nil '-+ers of the Big Three are
ITO meet =. Moscow comes as en-
couraging news for two reasons:
First, because it suggests that sub
stantial progress has been made
.towardsending the deadlock that has
impaired Anglo-American-Soviet re-
lations ever since the failure. of the
London Conference, and, second, be-
cause it indicates that Russia is in
mood to give cooperative consid-
Grafton to the procedures recently
outlined in the Truman-Attlee-K King
proposals for the control of atomic
energy.
AS jointly explained by the three
powers, the meeting, which has been
called in keeping with the Yalta
agreement and which will begin
next Saturday, will take up "a num-
ber of matters of current concern"
These matters, presumably, include
the Iranian situation, japanese con-
troll policy, strife in China, the task
of working out European peace
treaties and other grave items that
have tended to fill the international
atmosphere with mutual acrimony
and suspicion. The Foreign Min
listers of China, France, Britain, Rus
STA and the United States got no.
where with these problems at Lon
don, and, since it is doubtful that
the new discussions would have been
scheduled unless some progress had
been made meanwhile through reg
ular diplomatic channels, the forth
coming Moscow meeting, though
limited to the Big Three, definitely
raises the hope that the impasse
may yet be broken.
Similarly hopeful is the fact that
the business of the meeting will also
include IAN exchange of views on
the subject of the control of atomic
energy" In their joint declaration
last month, President Truman and
Prime Ministers Attlee and King
set forth excellent preliminary pro-
posals for a United Nations COM
mission to work out step-by-step
system for the international super
vision and development of this
fearsome new power, and they
made clear that the secrets-such
as they are-of its industrial appl-
cation would be shared with other
members of the UNO, on a recip-
rocal basis, "just as soon as enforce
able safeguards against its use for
destructive purposes can be de-
vised." When this statement was
issued, some too-excitable conclu-
sion-jumpers asserted that it froze
out Russia, but obviously it did
nothing of the sort. On the con-
trary-as, of course, it had to be
it was a sensible and far-sighted
move for cooperation, and that 1t
Is to be discussed at Moscow is not
only logical, but also an encouraging
sign that the Soviets realize, no less
than we, that one Of the greatest
imperatives of our time Is that ma
tions deal with the harnessed atom
in the closest possible harmony.
Not until the forthcoming meeting
is ended, of course, will it be pos
sible to measure its significance as a
move to check the recent deteriora-
ton in Anglo-American-Soviet re-
lations. The mere fact that it is
being held, however, is promising,
because it at least indicates that the
statesmen of the Big Three are
aware that conditions cannot be al
lowed to grow any worse than they
are without endangering the whole
future of collective security. In the
circumstances, it does not Seem un-
reasonable to hope that genuinely
good news may be heralded to the
world from Moscow in time for
Christmas