NEWS OF THE WEEK THE success of the Beaverbrook-Harriman Mission
to Russia I depended on several factors. In the first place—careful preliminary preparation before the Mission started, to find out exactly what materials could be made available. Secondly— the personalities of the men on the spot. Lord Beaverbrook and Mr. Harriman by their promptitude and magnanimity convinced M. Stalin that their Governments were putting their hearts into the matter and would go to all lengths to make the Russian war their war. They have created the right spirit as between Moscow, London and Washington. There was a third factor, and this conditioned everything else. Mr. Churchill's Government at the start had made up its mind that it must support the Russian front exactly as if it were a front manned by British soldiers, and keep nothing back that we could contrive to do without. Lord Beaverbrook went out knowing that he had Mr. Churchill behind him, and Mr. Churchill sent Lord Beaverbrook out knowing that he would generously interpret his own mind. The latter knows well that he has pledged others besides himself. He has promised that the British factories and workers will turn out so many aero- planes and so many tanks, and that his undertakings must be made good by British industrialists and the army of workers. They will be. Even without the specific pledge consciousness of Russia's extremity would guarantee that. Nothing British or American workers can do will affect the immediate fate of Moscow. But whether the capital stands or falls Russia's resistance will continue. Every American and every Briton who has lately been in Moscow is convinced of that. And in this struggle endurance will decide. British and American 'factories can enable Russia to outlast the invader.
