ROOSEVELT AND CHURCHILL MEET
Stalin unable to attend ‘victory conference’
President and Prime Minister to stress speeding defeat of Japan
Québec, Canada (UP) –
President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill began a momentous “victory conference” in Québec today and announced that Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin had been invited to the meeting but could not come while the Soviet armies are “developing their offensives against Germany increasingly.”
Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill arrived here this morning, expressing their pleasure over the rapid and favorable development of the war on the Allied side.
They were hardly established in the historic fortress citadel of Québec when it was announced that Stalin likewise had been asked to attend this meeting but had been unable to do so.
Text of message
Mr. Roosevelt’s press secretary, Stephen T. Early, released the following message from Stalin to the President and Prime Minister:
At the present time when the Soviet armies are fighting battles on such a broad front, developing their offensives increasingly, I am deprived of the possibility of traveling out of the Soviet Union and of leaving the direction of the army for the shortest period. All my colleagues agree that this is quite impossible.
Mr. Early said Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill fully understood why Stalin could not leave Russia at this time.
To cover wide field
The invitation to Stalin reflected the fact that the Roosevelt-Churchill discussions will cover a wide field, including post-surrender plans for Germany, although it was made plain that the conference’s major military endeavors will be pointed toward speeding victory over Japan.
The meeting has been called the “victory conference” and Mr. Churchill emphasized that theme in almost his first words of greeting to the President.
“Victory is everywhere,” he said when they met at the obscure Wolfe’s Cove railroad siding before settling down in the Citadel fortress for the duration of the meeting.
“When everything you touch turns to gold,” Mr. Churchill said of the recent continuing Allied war successes, “there is no need crying out about Providence.”
After meeting at Wolfe’s Cove where their trains were parked side by side, the Roosevelt and Churchill parties proceeded by motor to the Citadel, the historic fortress where they met in August 1943. After receiving formal military honors on the parade ground, they adjourned to their respective quarters in the Citadel.
News may be scarce
The military nature of the conference was stressed by Mr. Early, who told a news conference:
The recent inspection tour of the Pacific by the President, his conferences with Adm. Nimitz, Gen. MacArthur and the commanding general of the Alaska and Aleutians area, were but a preliminary, a very necessary one, to the conference beginning today.
As you all very well know, this is largely, if not exclusively, a military conference. There may be a disappointing volume of news. If there is, it will be for that reason. This is made necessary for security.
Mr. Roosevelt’s train arrived at Wolfe’s Cove at 9:00 a.m., an hour ahead of schedule, and he remained aboard his private car until Mr. Churchill arrived more than an hour later.
Mr. Churchill walked across four railroad tracks to where the President waited for him in a large open touring car.
“Well, hello,” the President greeted the Prime Minister, “I’m glad to see you.”
“Eleanor’s here,” the President added, referring to his wife.
Mrs. Churchill, who was with the Prime Minister, was on the opposite side of the car, spied Mrs. Roosevelt and shouted, “Hello, there.”
‘Frightfully sick’
“Did you have a nice trip?” the President asked Mr. Churchill, who replied by telling him that although there were three days of “beautiful weather,” he was “frightfully sick” part of the time aboard ship.
Traveling with the President were Adm. William D. Leahy (his chief of staff), VAdm. Ross T. McIntire (his physician and Surgeon of the Navy), and his military and naval aides, Maj. Gen. Edwin M. Watson and RAdm. Wilson Brown.
Top U.S. military men here included Gen. George C. Marshall (Army Chief of Staff), Adm Ernest J. King (commander-in-chief of the U.S. Fleet) and Gen. H. H. Arnold (Army Air Forces chief).
Roosevelt loses weight
Similar top British staffs came from London and Washington for the important talks – which are expected to cover a wide field, but with emphasis on Allied post-surrender plans for Germany and a speedier victory over Japan.
Mr. Roosevelt confessed to Mr. Churchill that he’d lost a little weight, and the Prime Minister in turn said he, himself, had lost some color recently.
Canadian Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King and the Earl of Athlone, Governor-General of Canada, welcomed Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill.
The sunshine of a bright autumn morning bathed the river and the citadel as the President and Prime Minister drove in the open autos under close escort to the citadel.
This conference, their tenth, enters a more difficult sphere than some of the previous sessions because the wars both in Europe and Asia have reached critical stages in which military planning becomes more involved with semi-political matters.
Russia big factor
While the meeting will be predominantly military, the military decisions must be keyed to top-level designs that only Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill can make.
Thus, on the European front, the decisions that must be made on military occupation and enforcement of peace terms are bound up with the questions of how much power Russia is to have over how much of Eastern Europe.
And the war against Japan has advanced so far ahead of schedule that urgent decisions must be made now for better integration of the British and American efforts.
Indian question up
That involves delicate matters of American dissatisfaction with the British effort from their Indian bases and the need for a top overall command such as Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower holds in Europe. Undoubtedly such a post would go to an American.
Neither Russia, China nor France will be represented here, but it was expected that many of the Roosevelt-Churchill recommendations will be submitted to them for approval.
The possibility of an agreement between Mr. Roosevelt and the Prime Minister for an American-British-Soviet administration of the post-surrender Reich was seen here.
Russia, however, might be averse to such a commission since it is interested in territorial revision and the importation of millions of Germans to rebuild devastated areas of the Soviet Union.
May partition Germany
Another suggestion heard was that Germany might be partitioned into two administrative zones – one to be under the joint jurisdiction of the United States and Great Britain and the other under Russia. Whatever decision is made here concerning Germany, Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill will have to bear in mind Russia’s interests despite the latter absence from the gathering.
The presence of top British military leaders and their opposite numbers in the U.S. High Command who were assumed to be coming with Mr. Roosevelt, indicated that military decisions of the utmost importance would be made.
Of special significance was the inclusion in the Churchill entourage of Maj. Gen. R. E. Laycock, chief of the British combined Operations Command. This pointed to great amphibious undertakings.
Since the need for such operations no longer exists in Europe, British participation with the United States in seaborne assaults on the Jap Empire was suggested.
With Mr. Churchill were his wife and Lord Moran, his physician.
