It was suggested in a daily paper that one of
the purposes of Lord Alexander's visit to General Eisenhower on Tuesday was to press on him the claims of Lord Montgomery to succession as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied forces in Europe. All things are possible, or nearly all, but few seem as improbable as this. In the first place the appointment does not rest with General Eisenhower, though no doubt his views on the subject would have weight. In the second there are great and obvious advantages in appointing an American, even though the Atlantic naval command has gone to an American too. America is contributing more troops and very much more money than this country to the defence of Western Europe, and one of the considerations that reconciles the American public to that is the fact than an American general is at the head of the land armies. Without this there would be much more danger than there is of the Americans getting tired of standing on guard in Europe indefinitely. Furthermore it has to be recognised that, admirably as Eisenhower and Montgomery have always got on together, the Field-Marshal is not universally popular in American military circles. The reasons for that are by no means necessarily to his dis- credit; they may well be to his credit. But the fact is not unimportant in the present context. Altogether all the likeli- hood is that General Eisenhower's successor will be an American like himself, and that it will be either General Gruenther or General Ridgway, more probably the former.
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