The Pittsburgh Press (February 3, 1945)
‘Big Three’ reported studying armistice terms for Nazis
South Russia suggested as meeting place for Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin
LONDON, England (UP) – President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Marshal Joseph Stalin were believed studying armistice terms for Germany today at their “Big Three” conference.
There were a number of signs that the long-awaited meeting had finally begun, with the approval of terms for a defeated Reich the most urgent item on the agenda.
Though official secrecy cloaked the site of the meeting, unconfirmed reports placed it somewhere in southern Russia.
A Tokyo broadcast, however, said the three Allied leaders were “reportedly” in session in Cairo.
The Jap-controlled Singapore radio guessed the meeting was being held at a “Romanian Black Sea port.”
The European Advisory Commission was understood to have drafted armistice terms for Germany for final approval of Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Churchill and Marshal Stalin. Washington sources said the terms were put in textual form and initialed by the commission some weeks ago.
The nature of the terms was kept secret. As in the case of Italy, they probably will not be published immediately, if at all.
While there was no indication of impending German collapse, it was believed the “Big Three” wished to be prepared in the event that the Germans decide to capitulate when the Red Army reaches Berlin.
The lightning-like Soviet drive into eastern Germany gave the armistice question precedence over pressing political problems affecting Poland, Greece and Yugoslavia.
The German press saw the meeting as a prelude to an Allied propaganda campaign to break Germany’s morale and hasten her surrender. Headlines in Berlin newspapers warned the German people against listening to surrender demands.
Adolf Hitler’s newspaper Voelkischer Beobachter carried a banner headline asserting that a “gigantic deceit is planned,” while the Nachtausgabe saw a “new big humbug maneuver” in the making.