The Pittsburgh Press (December 4, 1943)
Iran parley finished by ‘Big Three’
Ultimatum and plans for invasion believed approved
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer
Russians surprised by news of parley
Moscow, USSR (UP) –
The Russian people got one of their greatest surprises of the war today when they learned that Premier Joseph Stalin had gone to Tehran to confer with President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.Although such a conference had been a matter of common gossip at every gathering of foreign diplomats and correspondents for two weeks, the Russians had no inkling of it.
The first public report of the conference was a broadcast of an official TASS News Agency dispatch, which all Moscow newspapers published on their front pages today.
London, England –
President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin were revealed today to have concluded a conference in Tehran, Iran, at which they probably put the final stamp of approval on plans for an invasion of Western Europe and the complete defeat of Germany sometime next year.
A communiqué was expected momentarily that will call upon Axis Europe to “yield or die” and proclaim Germany’s post-war fate in broad terms that become increasingly stringent for every additional month she resists.
The communiqué will probably touch off an explosive crisis in the Balkans, perhaps leading to the early collapse of Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, and hasten Germany’s doom.
Broadcast by TASS
The first authentic details of the “Big Three” conference, about which the whole world has been speculating for nearly a month, were disclosed by the official Russian news agency TASS early today in a transmission over the Moscow radio for Russian provincial newspapers. The TASS dispatch was later repeated in the Moscow home broadcasts.
The dispatch said:
A few days ago, a conference of the three leaders of the Allied powers – President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin – occurred in Tehran.
Diplomatic and military representatives participated in the conference, at which problems of the warfare against Germany were discussed, as well as a series of political questions.
Decisions were taken which will be published.
Though TASS did not indicate the duration of the conference, the Berlin radio guessed that it began Nov. 28 – two days after the conclusion of the Roosevelt-Churchill-Chiang Kai-shek “crush Japan” meeting in Cairo – and ended yesterday.
London sources believed military discussions were confined largely to formal approval of Anglo-American plans for an invasion of Western Europe at the earliest possible moment in conjunction with an intensified Red Army drive from the east and possibly a thrust into the Balkans.
Says Montgomery present
There have been repeated rumors that the Allies were on the point of invading the Balkans from Italy, Africa or a Cyprus with a possibility that Turkey may be drawn into the war under her mutual-assistance alliance with Britain to provide additional bases for the assault.
Nazi broadcasts have suggested that Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, commander of Britain’s 8th Army, now in southern Italy attended the conference.
However, most observers were convinced that political discussions dominated the Tehran Conference.
Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria have previously been reported extending peace feelers to the Allies and informed sources believed they stand ready to withdraw from the war at the first opportunity.
These quarters doubted that similar quick results can be expected in Germany, however, even though the three heads of state might explain that early capitulation would ease though never avert their punishment.
Presumably, Messrs. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin will propose the quarantining of Germany in post-war Europe and the shackling of her manpower and industries to prevent any preparation for another world war.
The situation inside Germany was obscured by a flood of propaganda which on one side emphasized the Reich’s desperate situation and on the other side asserted that the country will never yield.
While the German people under Nazi rule may be in no position to assert themselves, the army, with the support of old-line conservatives who have already recognized the certainty of defeat, might during the next three months build up a coup.
First trip in 30 years
Premier Stalin’s trip to Tehran marked the first time in more than 30 years that he has gone outside of Russia’s borders. It was his first meeting with Mr. Roosevelt, though Mr. Churchill previously journeyed to Moscow to confer with the Soviet Premier.
Disclosure by TASS that the conference had been held was taken as an indication here that Premier Stalin had returned to Moscow and that Messrs. Roosevelt and Churchill had left Tehran.
The Berlin radio, in its overseas service, predicted that the conference would result in a demand for Germany’s surrender and promptly rejected it.
Davis takes action on Soviet ‘scoop’
Washington (UP) –
Elmer Davis, director of the Office of War Information, announced today that he has asked the State Department to make inquiries in Moscow concerning last night’s announcement by TASS, the official Soviet news agency, about the “Big Three” conference in Tehran.
He sought information particularly as to whether the TASS announcement was a violation of any release date agreed upon by the conferees.
The TASS announcement – the first official confirmation of the meeting of President Roosevelt, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and Prime Minister Winston Churchill – marked the second time this week that this government’s official news sources had been left at the post on international conference news.
White House Secretary Stephen T. Early said the Moscow announcement of the Tehran Conference last night was a surprise as far as the White House staff was concerned.
Mr. Davis repeated a statement made last night that TASS’ publication of news of the conference emphasized the need of precise and binding agreements between the representatives of all interested governments to assure fair handling and simultaneous release of such news in all countries.
He said he would consult with Brendan Bracken, head of the British Ministry of Information – and with information agencies of other governments as occasion requires – concerning measures which may be recommended to their superiors to prevent repetition of “such incidents which cause a quite avoidable international irritation.”
Landon asks caution on Moscow pacts
Washington (UP) –
Former Governor Alfred M. Landon of Kansas told Republicans today that GOP endorsement of the “so-called agreements” reached in Moscow before they are precisely defined would be “reckless and shortsighted” and “disastrous for the country.”
Addressing a luncheon meeting of Republican junior senators, the 1936 Republican presidential candidate coupled denunciation of the administration’s “uncertain” foreign policy with a proposal that “real Democrats” join Republicans in drafting legislation to keep “arrogant and strutting bureaucrats within due bounds of the law.”
Mr. Landon said Republicans should reject suggestions that both parties adopt in their 1944 platforms “similar declarations on foreign policy.”
He asserted:
Such a course would accelerate the danger of a drift towards one party in our country.
Expressing fear that the Moscow declarations “settled little outside of the military arrangements,” Mr. Landon said there was no assurance that Russia agreed with the non-aggrandizement principles of the Atlantic Charter.