3 NOVEMBER 1944, Page 4

I was a little surprised to hear the Prime Minister

(in the course of his statement on the Moscow discussions) reported by the B.B.C. news service as saying that he hoped a conference between himself, President Roosevelt and Marshal Stalin would take place in the near future, for that involved a public assumption by Mr. Churchill that Mr. Roosevelt would be re-elected. Actually the Prime Minister did not refer to either Mr. Roosevelt or Marshal Stalin by name he was careful to observe the proprieties by speaking of a confer- ence between " the three heads of State." It is quite true that even if Mr. Roosevelt is defeated on Tuesday, which seems unlikely, he will still remain President till January zoth, but in such an event it would be of the firseimportance to get in touch with Mr. Dewey

as soon as possible. The sensible thing wou'd seem to be for both Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Dewey to attend any coming conference, a departure which war exigencies would fully justify. But the con- tingency, as I say, seems unlikely to arise.