NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE new meeting of Foreign Secretaries at Moscow will be of critical importance—the more so if Marshal Stalin should decide to return to the capital while it is sitting. The decision to attempt to retrieve the failure registered in London two months ago is welcome, but it would be unwise to underrate the diffi- culties still outstanding. While there is no fixed agenda for the Moscow meeting it is matter of common knowledge that the prin- cipal topic in the " exploratory conversations " will be the procedure for proposing to the United Nations Organisation the appointment of a commission on the control of atomic energy. Britain and America very properly desire to associate Russia fully with the pro- posal. What will be their answer if she asks politely (or otherwise) how fully they propose to associate her with the secret which they hold? On the answer to that the success or failure of the whole conference may well depend, and there is no sign at present that an answer which will satisfy Russia is in prospect. Other matters that need to be discussed, whether in fact they are discussed or not, include Russia's attitude in Persia ; the divergence between the policy of •Russ:a and the policy of Britain and America in south- eastern Europe ; the divergence between Russia, who desires an executive Allied control council in Japan, and America, who desires only an advisory commission ; but not questions regarding control of Germany so far as they involve France. One more important • question will be raised. Mr. Byrnes is understood to desire the summoning of a general Peace Conference, which would presumably include all the belligerent Allies. There is much to be said for this, though whether the time is yet ripe for it is questionable, particularly where the settlement of Germany is concerned. But some clear plan for the apportionment of tasks between the Three, the Five, a Peace Conference and, ultimately, the United Nations Organisation, is very much to be desired. The Moscow meeting inspires anxious hopes ; it would be too much to say yet that it inspires confidence.
