Another Hope for Austria
With a stronger sense of duty than of hope the Western Powers have begun negotiating again with Russia for an Austrian peace treaty. Hitherto negotiations have broken down over two points ; the amount of repakations to go to Russia and the territorial or financial compensation to be paid to Yugoslavia, and of the two the second point has proved the more intractable. But since the Foreign Ministers' deputies last met relations between Russia and Yugoslavia have deteriorated so much that, it is suggested, Yugoslav claims may no longer find Russia an advocate, though a withdrawal of Russian support at this moment would provide just the sort of encouragement for Tito's anti-Cominform nationalism that Russia is anxious to avoid. The fact that a Russian representative has turned up at Lancaster House may be an argument in favour of a change of heart, and there is a good chance that Austria will turn out to be the subject of another move in the peace offensive. Even Russia, after all, is hardly likely to relish the thought of another barren marathon of negotiation. The problem of Russian repara- tions should not be insuperable if the Yugoslav claims are got out of the way; the last meeting of the deputies reduced them from a question of principle to one of detail, and though in these arguments detail has often tended to produce new points of principle, it should be possible to reach- an agreement which will give Russia all she wants within the limits so far set by the Western Powers. Russia has begun the new conference with the same insistence on a change of frontier. How far she will insist is the vital question.
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