As was only to be expected, the enemy press has endeavoured to suggest that the eight war aims of Great Britain and hen Allies, which have the endorsement of President Roosevelt, are very "small potatoes" after all Their similarity with President Wilson's fourteen points has already been dealt with in this column, The real significance of the eight is to be found in the fact that a very large section of public thought in Great Britain' and the United States has demanded that the war aims of the democracies should be published as soon as possible. That was not the view adopted by everyone, for there were people who contended that the prime essential was to get on and win this war and let the peace look after itself. But the advantage of the step which has been taken consists of the fact that this declaration will have a unifying effect amongst the Allies and the United States, for it enunciates principles which are thoroughly democratic, and gives a promise that no nation in the world, when victory has been won, will be reduced to that subjection which Hitler has planned for all countries.
It has been said, and very rightly so, that to have produced such*a document the meeting and conference between President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill were not necessary. But it must not be thought that this declaration was all that was decided upon between the two leaders. There is reason to believe that every problem arising out of this war, irrespective of the locality in which it may have arisen, was thoroughly discussed and decision thereupon reached. What those decisions are only time will reveal, but it is safe to assume that a complete understanding has been reached between the Governments of the two fountness and that close ce-operation all round has been assured. What that means Germany and her abject accomplice, Italy, may soon have the opportunity of discovering, while it is possible that the Japanese may also learn to what extent Great Britain and the United States are pursuing their parallel policies. Of this all three may be fértain—with the frank discussions which have taken place both statesmen have been put in possession of information in a manner which could not even be approached by documentary exchanges and full realization of each others' advantages and difficulties should pave the way for an even closer col laboration than that which at present prevails.
The suggestion that these Anglo-American talks should be followed by a similar series of discussions with Russia included is an important one. The course of the campaign in western Russia shows that there is more than a reasonable hope of the Soviets being able to continue the struggle through the winter and into next spring, and it is eminently. desirable that the three Governments should explore in the meantime the best method pf. ya their efforts against that time. Russia should be given every possible assistance during that interval in Order to make up the undoubted heavy wastage she has been experiencing and fit her to resume the initiative when the time comes for it. A complete understanding between these three great Powers, and full realization all round of what can be contributed towards the fulfilment of the common task of defeating the enemy should make opera-lions all the smoother.
Much has been done already by the ce: ference between the various military missions. Germany has the advantage of being compactly situated and unified under one contro. That Great Britain, her Allies, including Russia, and the United States, do not possess. They never can to quite the same degree, but anything which tends towards the removal of any likelihood of misunder: standing would serve to modify the disadvantages under which they are for the moment labouring. It is clear, therefore, that the conference between President Roosevelt and Mr, Churchill is likely to be productive of much more good than the enemy propagandists are pretending to believe. Indeed the very fact that they are endeavouring so earnestly to minimize the results which have been obtained, indicates the degree of their anxiety over what else the two men discussed somewhere at sea. To the Hitlerian fiction of a united Europe there is opposed a common front supported by Great Britain and her Allies -together with the United States. The forces of an infinitely more Powerful and richer section of the world stand arrayed against the aggressor states, and this conference contributes to the certainty of what the outcome will be, namely, victory for the former.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.