IABILRY AUG .iii 1944

AN AMERICAN VIA MEDIA

THE Republican Convention at Chicago elected Mr. Thomas Dewey as candidate in November without a dissentient vote, impressed less by his personal merits—though he is not devoid of them—than by the desire to secure the 45 electoral votes which New York State, of which Mr. Dewey is Governor, commands, and by the knowledge that there was no one better available. The field had been narrowed weeks ago by the complete self-elimination of Mr. Wendell Winkle after his defeat in the Wisconsin Primaries, and by the decision of Governor Bricker of Ohio, Mr. Dewey's strongest remaining rival, to run for Vice-President instead of President after the unexpected withdrawal of Governor Warren of California from candidature for the former post. That left only Mr. Stassen, ex- Governor of Minnesota, but Mr. Stassen is away on active service, and as a man in the early forties he has the future before him ; he will certainly be heard of further. As for Mr. Dewey himself, he probably possesses qualities still to be revealed. He is able, and has proved an efficient Governor of New York ; higher office, if he attained it, might prove him equal to his responsibilities. But so far there is nothing to mark him out as anything better than a sound party man such as the Republican Party, which elected Warren Gamaliel Harding in 192o, loves to send to the White House.

The United States, which contains a good many million passionate anti-New Dealers, has one set of questions to ask of Mr. Dewey, and a 'world concerned primarily, and concerned intensely, with America's international policy in the four years after next January, another set. Here, and at this moment, it is natural to concentrate on the latter question. On the whole, the outlook under Mr. Dewey, if less satisfactory than it might have been under Mr. Willkie, is more satisfactory than under any other probable Republican candi- date. The isolationists have completely lost their bold on the Republican Party. Its foreign affairs plank declares for " post-war co-operative organisation " (not, by an excess of caution for a post- war organisation, though the one almost necessarily implies the other), and the candidate in his acceptance speech on Wednesday went further in affirming that America must take her part in defending the peace which she is taking so effective a part in winning. He would, he said, keep to the middle of the road, and he denounced the idea of America's membership of a World Super-State. So, equally, would President Roosevelt, and British Ministers would be as decisive against committing this country to anything of the sort, if by Super-State is meant some over-ruling federal administration. The most encouraging feature of the Chicago Convention, with its rather ambiguous platform and its more explicit candidate, is that it

provides evidence that continuity in fo ei n policy may for the fir time become an agreed feature of Ame ublic life.. indeed, said as much, and the dcclarat n is of the firs It is not probable that Mr. Dewey e.. I the odds are on Mr. Roosevelt, whom his country will desire to keep in office till not merely the war, but the peace, is won. But if the next President is after all a Republican, it should mean little change in America's relation to the world. There is, however, the unsatisfac- tory possibility that a Democratic President, elected on his personality, will be hampered by a Republican Congress.

The Other French Army

In two communiques, one of them affirming that " the systematic disorganisation of enemy transport by the French Forces of the Interior has contributed directly to the success of Allied operations in Normandy," General Eisenhower has placed the activities of French resisters on their proved level of importance. These movements of organised resistance, which since November have had their political spokesmen in the Consultative Assembly in Algiers, now possess a further link with the external forces of liberation in the person of General Koenig. This able soldier, the defender of Bir Hacheitn, combines the offices of Commander-in-Chief of the French Forces in Great Britain and of the French Forces of the Interior with that of Commissioner for the northern zone of liberated France, and acts under the authority of both the French Provisional Government and of General Eisenhower. This latest measure of practical co-opera- tion between Algiers and the Allies will powerfully reinforce the working 'agreements about civil administration and finance which were being reached this week by the joint Anglo-French Com- mission. In every sphere the week has seen steady improvement in the relations between France and her Allies. The rumours about French civilian snipers were effectively scotched by the SHAEF announcement of June 26th ; when General de Gaulle met the Consultative Assembly last Monday he tactfully urged postponement of any debate on the liberation of France ; and the terms of General Koenig's appointment were welcomed with enthusiasm by the Assembly. That agreement on military and administrative matters may soon spread to the political sphere is indicated by Piesident Roosevelt's acceptance of the dates (July 5th to July 9th) suggested for the proposed visit of General de Gaulle to the United States. The substantial agreement already reached in London will then become the basis for the definition of Franco-American relations.

"Cold-Blooded Butchery "

Even familiarity with the normal discrepancy between German statements and the known facts had not prepared most British people for the cynicism of the German pretence that the fifty Allied Air Force officers murdered by the Gestapo at Stalag Luft III in March were killed whilst trying to escape under Allied orders, and with "both military and political objectives," which endanger the public security of Germany. The sworn evidence of repatriated officers who were in the camp in question at the time gives the real picture of systematic savagery with which the Gestapo carried out its murder of helpless recaptured prisoners. As Mr. Eden indicated in „the House of Commons last Friday, this is the first known instance of any mass shooting of British prisoners of war ; and the only known occasion when the bodies of British prisoners who have died in captivity have been cremated. The reasons why that course was adopted here are obvious. The only logical inference is that this latest addition to the lengthening German charge-sheet of atrocities is the product of a blind and ferocious fear. The German war- makers, sullen and at bay, have made manifest their fear of their own internal insecurity, of the prospect of defeat, and of any evidence which would ensure personal retribution after defeat. A categorical pledge that full retribution for this " odious crime against the laws and conventions of war " will be exacted has been given by the British Government: and it is a crime in which, as Mr. Harold Nicolson suggests on another page, the German High Command and the Ltift- waffe have a major responsibility. The promised second Note from Berlin cannot alter or obliterate the facts already known. German propagandists have displayed their inventive power of late con- spicuously enough to discount in advance any exculpatory explana- tion that may be under preparation in the matter of Stalag Luft III.

Finland's Choice

After the fall of Viborg the Finnish Government and people found themselves at the parting of the ways. On Tuesday the Govern- ment chose the way of perdition when President Ryti took advan- tage of the significant presence of Ribbentrop in Helsinki to ask Germany for military aid. It arrived promptly, in the form of German troops and S.S. men tramping through the streets of the capital. But though Finland's choice is now made, it can do little to affect her immediate fate. Popular and even parliamentary oppo- sition to the policy of more abject subservience is strong. The admission of more German troops was allowed only after the secret session of Parliament had been cancelled at the last moment, and was chosen by the Linkomies Cabinet as the only alternative to resignation. The motives of the Nazis in thus extending their tlready vast military commitments are clear enough : they dare not Incur the consequences in either the Baltic or the Balkans of a separate peace between Finland and Soviet Russia. It is reported teat some anti-tank formations have been shipped from Estonia to the Viborg front. But such help as a beleaguered Reich can afford tt send can scarcely be enough to stem the present tide—though it may possibly affect the present rate—of Russian advance. It may well lx that the Germans' hopes tie more in the promotion of civil wax in Finland, at which they have already hinted, than in the erection of any permanent barrier to Russian progress. Administrative and popular confusion are for them preferable to an armistice, which would mean the internment or destruction of General Dietl's troops in he north. Finland's choice may prove even more costly than it already appears, and her struggle looks more purposeless than ever.

King Feter and Marshal Tito

The tangled skein of Yugoslav politics has been partly unravelled by the agreement reached between King Peter's Government and Marshal Tito. It has been ably negotiated by the King's new Premier, Dr. Subasic. Although details of the agreement have not yet been made known, it seems that in substance the question of the regime has wisely been postponed until after liberation, and Marshal Tito has enlarged the stature of his leadership by the spirit of reasonable compromise in which he has received Dr. Subasic. Mr. George Hall stated in the House of Commons last week that

accumulated evidence showed that General Mihailovitch had for many months refrained from active operations against the enemy and that some of his leaders had fought against the partisans. ThL unhappy internal divisions in Yugoslavia are no concern of her Allies, beyond a general anxiety to see them healed as early and as effec- tively as possible. King Peter and Marshal Tito know that the\ have the support of the Governments of Great Britain, the United States and Soviet Russia in their present efforts to reach national unity.. The presence of the British Ambassador and of Brigadier Maclean, head of the British Mission, at the meeting, but not al the actual conversations, between Marshal Tito and Dr. Subasic express this common purpose. Whether or not unity involves the complete elimination of General Mihailovitch remains to be seen If so, the King alone can affect that and at the same time retain the allegiance of the General's numerous supporters in Serbia. Indeed, one feature of present developments is the increasing activity of the King himself, who has recently visited Malta and the Italian front, to confer with General Alexander on the military problem, of Yugoslavia.

A Fortnight of Flying Bombs

The plague of pilotless planes has now continued for nearly a fortnight. A German commentator warned his own people that the supply available would only last about fourteen days ; but if that had been true it would probably not have been said. These weapons have been concentrated against certain regions, in particular in the South of England, but though they have caused some damage and a regrettable number of casualties they have not had a featherweight's influence on the conduct of the war or the morale of the people. To that extent they have been an unqualified failure, and by this completely indiscriminate attack on the civil population—the R.A.F.'s attacks on Germany are definitely directed at military objectives, though the civil population is necessarily involved as well—Germany is blackening her own name, and hardening opinion against the day of reckoning, to no purpose whatever. It has been suggested by Mr. Morrison and others that the • Germans may have still other secret weapons in store, such as the rocket-gun, whose existence, or prospective existence, may be inferred from the vast launching-plat- forms discovered near Cherbourg. If it be so, that menace will be faced in the same spirit as the flying-bombs. No one need affect to be indifferent to these lethal instruments. They are alarming and horrible, but as instruments of war they have proved completely ineffective. As far as can be judged, they have killed more children than service-men, and the slaughter of children does not win wars. The more recourse is had to weapons of this kind the sterner, inevit- ably, will be the terms imposed on a defeated Germany.

A Negotiated Peace

The Archbishop of York, by his visits to Russia and the United States, has shown himself in the past twelve months a diligent and effective promoter of understanding between the Allies. In both the countries with which he made contact his declaration in his Diocesan Leaflet that a negotiated peace with an undefeated Germany would make another war within twenty years inevitable will command almost universal assent. So, without doubt, it will here. A cardinal point with German propagandists—before as well as after the regime of Hitler—has always been the claim that the army was not defeated in the last war, but " stabbed in the back " by the capitula- tion of the politicians. There was not a word of truth in the charge, but not an inch of room must be left for its repetition this time. The German forces are being defeated on every front, and that must continue till the necessary unconditional surrender is forth- coming. But to hasten that time it is imperatively necessary that the Allied Governments should make clear beyond all misunder- standing what kind of a world they want to construct for mankind— including Germans—to live in. Unconditional surrender plus the Atlantic Chatter would supply what is necessary. Unfortunately, no one knows what derogations from the Atlantic Charter are contem- plated by the major Allies. An authoritative statement on that point is urgently needed.