The Pittsburgh Press (December 2, 1943)
Joseph Stalin, President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were reported drafting the obituary of Nazi Germany in Tehran today in a conference paralleling that in Cairo where plans were agreed upon for stripping Japan of her empire and forcing her unconditional surrender.
Unofficial reports circulated that the leaders of Russia, the United States and Great Britain were framing an ultimatum to Germany demanding immediate capitulation on pain of progressively severe terms.
Congressional quarters in Washington accepted as completely factual the reports that Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill had proceeded to Tehran to meet Stalin after their meeting in Cairo with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of China.
A subsidiary conference in Cairo on Mediterranean strategy under Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower gave rise to reports of plans for a new invasion of Southern Europe, perhaps in the Balkans.
Stalin attends new session
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer
London, England –
President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin were reported conferring in Tehran today and observers believed they were mapping a post-war program to “quarantine” Germany and saddle her manpower, raw materials and production for rebuilding stricken Europe.
Through such a program, observers were convinced, the “Big Three” Allied Western powers plan to punish Germany and smash her ability to make future wars as completely as Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Churchill and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek plotted the crushing of Japan in Cairo.
No confirmation
There was no official confirmation of the whereabouts of Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill since their departure from Cairo for an “unknown destination” following the Anglo-American-Chinese Conference, but a dispatch in a Lisbon newspaper reported they had already begun conversations with Premier Stalin in Tehran, capital of Iran. The Ankara radio also said that Stalin and Mr. Roosevelt were in Tehran.
Laurence Steinhardt, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, was also reported by Lisbon to have flown to Tehran. There has been widespread speculation that the Allies may prevail upon Turkey to grant them bases for an Anglo-American invasion to liberate the Balkans in conjunction with a Soviet drive from southern Ukraine.
If later developments confirm Stalin’s presence at a conference with Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill, it will be the first time in 31 years that the Soviet leader has left the borders of Russia.
Terms for Nazis
“Second-front” considerations were expected to play little part in any Roosevelt-Churchill-Stalin meeting, since it can be assumed that Anglo-American plans for an invasion of Western Europe at the earliest possible moment are already well advanced.
The three heads of state will probably fix the approximate terms for Germany’s unconditional surrender and post-war treatment so that the Allies will not be caught without adequate plans in the event of Germany’s sudden and unexpected collapse from within, as they were when Italy surrendered.
The conferees may frame an ultimatum demanding Germany’s immediate capitulation on pain of increasingly severe terms if the Germans persist in their policy of scorched-earth retreats.
Plans for new war?
The German plan appears to be to denude occupied Europe of all its able-bodied manpower by murder, maiming and sterilization to delay its recovery and give Germany a head start in preparations for a new world war 10-15 years hence.
To speed the rehabilitation of occupied countries and at the same time prevent Germany from preparing for another war, Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Churchill and Premier Stalin were expected to seek to “quarantine” the Reich by a strict system of controls that will occupy all her manpower, materials and production in repairing the destruction the Germans have wrought.
Chiang meets with leaders
By Henry T. Gorrell, United Press staff writer
Allies to wrest spoils of war from Japan
Chiangs back home after long flight
Chungking, China –
Generalissimo and Mme. Chiang Kai-shek have returned from the Cairo Conference in a 42-hour flight of two long hops, it was announced officially today.
The Chiangs flew from Cairo to Karachi in 18 hours and on to Chungking, stopping only an hour in Karachi for refueling.
Cairo, Egypt –
The broad outline of a program to strip Japan of the vast empire she has acquired since 1895 and force her unconditional surrender was believed today to have emerged from an historic conference among President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.
Though the full force of the multi-sided Allied offensive will probably not hit Japan until after the defeat of Germany, there was every indication that the signal has been given for the preliminary moves that will lead to the crushing for all time of Japanese military power.
Military moves mapped
The presence at the tri-power conference of Adm. Lord Louis Mountbatten, newly-appointed Supreme Commander for Southeast Asia, and Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, American commander in the China-Burma-India Theater, along with the British and U.S. Chiefs of Staff and high Chinese officers, pointed to the mapping of strategy for future military moves.
The conclusion of the five-day meeting, at which the Pacific counterpart of the Atlantic Charter was drafted, was announced early today after the three principals had departed for parts unknown. The locale of the conference was given only as “somewhere in North Africa.”
A communiqué, heralding a future offensive to beat the Japs to their knees, said:
The three great Allies expressed their resolve to bring unrelenting pressure against their brutal enemies by sea, land and air.
Early drive foreseen
Observers believe the conference presaged imminent, closely-coordinated drives designed to divide the Jap fleet and shatter the shaky supply lines which maintain the outposts of the enemy empire.
In Washington, Secretary of War Stimson said at his press conference today that the news from the North African meeting was highly encouraging, and that military measures had been agreed upon which would be disclosed in future operations. He said, however, that present operations against the Japs disclose that the fight in the Pacific Theater will be long and costly, though victory is certain.
The President, Mr. Churchill and the Generalissimo opened their meeting Nov. 22. They were flanked by the top men of the U.S., British and Chinese Armed Forces.
Objectives outlined
For five days, the galaxy of Allied chieftains conferred and then an announcement set forth the objectives of the Allies:
It is their purpose that Japan shall be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the First World War in 1914, and that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and the Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China.
Japan will also be expelled from all other territories which she has taken by violence and greed. The aforesaid three great powers, mindful of the enslavement of the people of Korea, are determined that in due course Korea shall become free and independent.
To achieve these ends, the A-B-C combination mapped the ways and means of defeating Japan.
Mme. Chiang present
Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill promised Chiang to throw into the war against Japan all their resources consistent with their determination to defeat Germany as soon as possible.
Though ill, Mme. Chiang flew thousands of miles to attend the conference with her husband.
The list of participants in the intense round of conferences, consultations, luncheons and dinners comprised a military who’s-who of the United States, Britain and China, with such notable exceptions as Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, who are already directing offensives against Japan.
Diplomats, too
Diplomatic as well as military talent was abundant. W. Averell Harriman and Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, U.S. and British Ambassadors to Russia, came to Africa for the meeting. So did U.S. Ambassador to Britain John G. Winant and British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden.
After the three-power meeting, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower presided over a lengthy conference confined to the Mediterranean Theater, where he is the Allied commander.
Concerning the North African conference, it was announced:
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Allied military leaders decided on future military operations against Japan.
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The United States, Britain and China will bring unrelenting pressure on their “brutal enemies” by land, sea and air.
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The Allies, fighting to restrain and punish Jap aggression, will strip Japan of its conquests, not only those in this war, but those dating back to 1895 when Formosa was taken from China.
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The Allies will persevere in the “serious and prolonged operations necessary to procure the unconditional surrender of Japan.”
The conference was attended by an amazing gathering of Allied leaders. These included:
MILITARY:
- Gen. George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff
- Adm. Ernest J. King, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet
- Gen. Henry H. Arnold, Commanding General, U.S. Air Forces
- Adm. William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to the President as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy
- Lt. Gen. Brehon Somervell, chief of the U.S. Army Service Forces
- Gen. Eisenhower
- Gen. Stilwell
- Gen. Chennault
- Maj. Gen. Edwin M. Watson, military aide to the President
- RAdm. Wilson Brown, the President’s naval aide
- RAdm. Ross T. McIntire, Surgeon General, USN, and personal physician to the President
- Adm. of the Fleet Sir Andrew Browne Cunningham, British First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff
- Gen. Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff
- Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, British Chief of Air Staff
- Gen. Sir Hastings Ismay, Chief of Staff to Mr. Churchill as Minister of Defense
- Lt. Gen. Sir Thomas S. R. Webster, quartermaster to the British Army Forces, a recognized authority on supply and quartering of troops
- Lord Louis Mountbatten
- Field Marshal Sir John Dill, head of the British Joint Staff Mission in Washington
- Gen. Shang Chen, commanding officer of Generalissimo Chiang’s headquarters and director of the General Office of the Chinese Military Council
- Lt. Gen. Chow-Ching-tou, Chinese Air Force, director of the National Aeronautical Affairs Commission
- VAdm. Yang Hsuanchen, director of the Second Department of the Military Operations Board of the Chinese National Military Council.
POLITICAL:
- Harry Hopkins
- W. Averell Harriman, U.S. Ambassador to Russia
- Laurence A. Steinhardt, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey
- John J. McCloy, U.S. Assistant Secretary of War
- Lewis W. Douglas, deputy administrator of the U.S. War Shipping Administration
- Mr. Eden
- Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, British Ambassador to Russia
- Lord Leathers, British Transport Minister
- Sir Alexander Cadogan, British Permanent Foreign Under Secretary
- Dr. Wang Chung-hui, Secretary General of the National Supreme Defense Council.
Began Nov. 22
The official revelation that the conference was held was made in a communiqué that said the meetings started Nov. 22. It foretold the doom of the sprawling, blood-soaked Jap Empire in a grim and almost contemptuous manner and contained a hint to Germany of what was coming next for her.
The announcement said:
The three Allies, in harmony with those of the United Nations at war with Japan, will continue to persevere in the serious and prolonged operations necessary to procure the unconditional surrender of Japan.
Thus, the nation that started on its career of conquest in 1895 with the seizure of Formosa and the Pescadores, seized vast Manchuria in 1931, attacked China in 1937 and in 1941 embarked on its seizure of the Philippines, Malaya, Burma, the Dutch East Indies and the Pacific Islands, is to be whittled down to size and left possessor only of its own islands.
It was deemed significant that Lord Mountbatten, aside from the three principals, seemed a dominant figure at the conference. It was believed that not only had the Allied leaders decided on imminent closely-coordinated drives to divide the Jap fleet and cut Japan’s supply lines, but that there might soon be a great thrust against the Malay Peninsula.
Italians ‘hopeful’ over conferences
Berne, Switzerland –
In those circles of northern Italy loyal to the government of Pietro Badoglio, hopeful eyes are turned today toward the reported Middle Eastern conference of Allied leaders.
These circles are hoping that the meetings will serve to alter radically the Italian situation and lead to Balkan operations which would relieve Italy of the horrors of war.
With a touch of wishful thinking, these Italians are convinced that Russia will now “authorize” Balkan operations, providing the Russian Army takes an active part in them. Such troops would pass through the Dardanelles – with the sanction of Turkey.
Drive into Burma believed drafted
London, England (UP) –
President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and their military advisers probably completed in North Africa broad plans for an Allied advance into Burma to reopen the best land route to China, well-informed military observers said today.
The presence at the conference of Adm. Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander for Southeast Asia, and Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, American commander in China, Burma and India, was taken as an indication that the next step in the long-range campaign to smash Japan will be an offensive to reopen the Burma Road.
Only through opening that backdoor to China can sufficient men, armor and supplies be moved into the country to recapture the “Bomb Tokyo” airfields of eastern China and mount an all-out air and possibly an eventual land offensive against the Jap home islands.
Japs say parley linked to ‘defeats’
By the United Press
Enemy propaganda took the line today that the meetings of Allied leaders had a twofold purpose – to start a new offensive in the “nerve war” and to cover up alleged defeats in the Pacific.
The vague guesses broadcast by Berlin and Tokyo radios dwelt largely on the theme that the Allies now found it necessary to make other plans in view of setbacks.
Tokyo argued the meetings resulted from the big naval victories Japan claims to have won in the Pacific.