3 JANUARY 1947, Page 8

That Lord Montgomery's perpetual journeyings should be taking him to

Moscow is'cry good news. It is the kind of. visit that may have lasting results. For it is a mission that has no purpose except good will ; missions that have definite purposes have either to suc- ceed or fail, and tend to be too serious and strenuous in consequence. The Field-Marshal will command the respect due to a great soldier. He will not be suspected either of sinister political manoeuvring or of attempting to learn Russian military secrets. If he revives old cordialities at a moment when the Russians are looking a little askance at Anglo-American military cordiality that will be all to the good. The visit, moreover, has come about in a very satisfactory

way, through-an invitation extended by Marshal Stalin as long ago as the Potsdam Conference, and renewed much more specifically

through the Russian Embassy in London a few weeks ago. Such invitations can easily be allowed to lapse in the absence of any real enthusiasm behind them. That this one, was renewed as soon as the Field-Marshal was thought likely to be free to make the journey is one of a slowly increasing number of scattered signs that the Soviet Union is becoming less uncompromising in its relations with the outside world. If that is so, and if Lord Montgomery can do any- thing to quicken the process, 1947 will be an improvement on 1946.