NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE question of the exact meeting-places of the Foreign Ministers' conference in Berlin having been settled by a compromise, the stage is set for at least the first three weeks. If at the end of that time there is another argument about meeting-places that may in itself be a signal of failure in the conference 'as a whole. For if the Powers will not trust each other to refrain frOm taking advantage of the Unnatural division of the City of Berlin in order to make each other uncomfortable they will . obviously not achieve cordiality on larger matters. There is so far no convincing sign of such cordiality, nor of an understanding on the general character of the conference, nor of agreement on the principal item on the agenda. The Russian suggestion that the meeting should be held in Berlin betokened neither approval of the Western Foreign Ministers' proposal that the essential subject of the talks should be Germany, nor the abandonment of the argument that the relief of world tension and preparation for a Five Power meeting, with China present, should come first. It is tempting to argue that we must simply wait and see. But we must also be ready with counter-measures if the worst, and most likely, contingency occurs and the Russians repeat their insistence that Germany must be given a provisional Government before elections are held and that the structure of Atlantic defence must be dismantled. The policy of peace through strength has been the only policy to stop the Com- munists so far. It will be necessary, if there is to be no Russian concession in Berlin, to develop it still further with the aid 01 the new flexible strategy now being developed by the Americans.
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