Show washington history hist dry written at quebec buebe 0 only time will reveal it military experts satisfied with results of roosevelt churchill conference political angle an Exl enigma grna by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator mr baukhage has written column from quebec site of f the roosevelt churchill confer nee ence which he covered for newspapers affiliated with western newspaper union I 1 service union trust building washington D C now that some of the deep secrets which surrounded the most important conference so far held by the firm of roosevelt churchill purveyors of victory are beginning to be revealed in action one can lean ba back ck gaze at this remarkable adventure in history in the making and wonder I 1 cannot help elp recalling the evening of sunday august 22 nearly a month after the actual preparations tor for the conference began the purpose of which was then even by the people whose job was to do the spade work I 1 aps was sitting with edgar mowrer the well known newspaper man michael barkway representative of the british broadcasting company and wilson woodside commentator lot for the th e canadian broadcasting system that morning the news had broken that ambassador litvinov would not return to washington it was wag learned that a virtually unknown wn member of the soviet diplo diplomatic mati 0 corps who had been their re representative t in ottawa was to replace the adroit mr malsky expert lieutenant in london woodside had learned quite by a accident cc ident that a little while before the representative of tass the official russian news agency who had been an active participator in the press conferences had suddenly departed from our midst severing the last shadowy link with the kremlin A lew few days before just as a rumor was circulating that the conference had agreed upon the division of germany into separate states as one of the postwar post war steps the text of a broadcast from moscow was printed to in an american paper it was made by the so called free germany committee and of course could not have voiced any views contrary to the w will I 1 11 of stalin it urged that the ger german an army be kept intact after the warl sf absence of course absence from the conference had been widely discussed in quebec to say the least we were four very confused cont used members of press and radio and I 1 think 0 our u r feelings were typical two of us h had ad covered international conferences before was russia running a competition show to the one staged on the heights of americas gibraltar the shudder we shuddered and which c h spread out over the telegraph lines itne s and airwaves air waves bounced back to the walls of the citadel where the top men were conferring at an eight conference that eve e evening ening presidential secretary stephen early announced that the recall of litvinov had been known to the conferees long before it ha happened P and had bad no influence or effect on the conference meanwhile all sorts of speculation about the effect of the absence of the russians the ominous empty chair had been pouring out of quebec perhaps comforting if not aiding the enemy and probably mak making ing BO 0 one ne happy even stalin C could this and the other unfortunate things which were written have been avoided were we in spite ol of ourselves evil muses I 1 said to one of the willing waung but rather futile and frustrated men who were supposed to provide us with facts if we could have just had a little guidance it have been better he admitted that was true but he added when an information man asks the higher ups tor for information they are so ah afi aid they will say more than they ought to that we ge get t nothing more than press radio and I 1 news photographers were here we I 1 filled to bursting the little old clarendon I 1 hotel with its narrow corridors I 1 its lobby turned into a telegraph office and its modest bedrooms ro ms made into press roani room and broadcasting broadcasting studios two blocks away was the spacious chateau frontenac a Nor normandie mandle palace with bedrooms where some military and technical experts were im mo canadian mounted police tough british marines and hefty canadian veterans of dieppe guarded its portals the inmates like us were virtually inc incommunicado when they dared take a one days river trip one officer said it was to prevent an outbreak of claustrophobia insisi invisible me ink there is much we did not know w when hen we arrived there is more we still do not know of what occurred c after the conferees met history was written but it was written in invisible ink now some things can be told in the first place the event was perhaps purposely perhaps unwittingly played down in washington in advance before I 1 left ohp capital I 1 was assured the conference aou would id probably end about the wean wednesday aday a week before it did I 1 had hoped tor for a quiet half weeks vac vacation atlon but no sooner had I 1 arrived on the sunday preceding Roosevel ts arrival the next tuesday than I 1 saw we were all wrong I 1 felt sure something had happened when the president and the prime minister had their preliminary talk at hyde park something did for I 1 am sure there had been no intent intention lon of producing the parade of cabinet officers and othir other brass hats who kept dropping in from we the skies and elsewhere one after another but I 1 learned that the length of the conference was planned to a it t by the president long before it began he knew it wo would uld last precisely as long as it did for he be timed his ottawa trip in advance so he would be back la in washington on august 20 26 he knew what was coming and that Is why he be slipped off for that fishing tr trip lp which was just that and nothing more a head ahead of the conference it was a health measure pure and simple churchill and his midnight cigars are something to prepare tor for the wee sma hours are the big moments for this human dynamo then the something yet to be revealed happened ch churchill archill hailed his foreign minister from london and with him came not only information minister bracken who p played ayed I 1 no part as an informer but nevertheless was of cabinet rank but also the permanent head of the british foreign office sir alexander cadogan with the accent on the dog pronounced though secretary early could never quite master it dug of course hull had to appear to match eden then another cabinet member secretary of war stimson clims slims on to match bracken and then secretary of the navy knox tor for good measure perhaps to give verisimilitude to the talk that the not being neglected then lust just before stalin made public his gesture of withdrawal recalling litvinov T V soong chinese foreign minister more or less permanently installed in washington for some time past appeared then there was the excuse that a big drive on burr burma na w was a s in the wind the big drive meanwhile the press had blown very hot and then very cold on an immediate invasion of europe from britain I 1 dont know whether the reports that the big smash was coming was a part of 0 the allied war of nerves but I 1 am sure that the folks who threw cold water on it were sincere in belief it just be started before spring I 1 sat with a general whom I 1 have known for a long time a real soldier in world war I 1 as well as in this one heres what he had to say we got the men yet we must drop bombs upon bombs there is ils a lot more softening up to do this man was on the periphery not on the inside I 1 am sure that the technical experts the officers and we had them all probably the greatest aggregation of military brains and real exper experience iencO too ever assembled anywhere they were sure they were certain and when the conference was over they were satisfied As to the political side that Is an enigma and will be one as long as russia remains one and that she is B R I 1 E F S by baukhage ibe the british colony ol of fiji once noted for cannibalism among the natives native Is granting reciprocal aid to 10 U S forces stationed there to the value of almost three million dollars annually women have been found to be mens equals or betterson bett ersIn making diamond dies the has revealed A heavy bomber cruising st at miles an hour burns 3 gallons gallon r of gasoline every minute to continue the standard of the U S army as the healthiest army in the world additional physicians and surgeons will be needed during the coming three months and an additional 2500 by january 1 1914 |