It was disclosed to-night that the conference of the three heads of government of the United States, the U.S.S.R. and Great Britain, with their Foreign Secretaries, Chiefs of Staff, and other advisers, have been in session for eight days at Yalta, in the Southern Crimea.
Marshal Stalin, lunching on the first day of the meeting with President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill, proposed the toast of the ╥Crimean Conference,╙ and it is by this name it will now be known.
THE CASABLANCA FORMULA
The Allied leaders and their advisers have dealt, above all, with the three main aspects of the European situation. First they decided upon the co-ordination of military plans that are to bring about Germany╒s defeat. Secondly, agreement was reached upon the handling of the
transition period that will follow the end of centralised German resistance. Thirdly, the pressing political and social problems of Europe came under consideration.
Military decisions will, of course, be revealed only on the field of operations. It is significant, however, that it has been agreed that further staff meetings between the three Powers are to take place whenever the need arises.
National Socialist Germany, as the communiquÄ says, is doomed, and the Allied leaders have reaffirmed their determination to impose on the Germans the Casablanca formula of unconditional surrender.
Each of the Powers will occupy a separate zone of Germany, but administration and control will be co-ordinated through a central control commission consisting of the Supreme Commanders of the three Powers, with headquarters in Berlin. This certainly sounds reassuring, since it suggests a common policy of occupation and should eliminate the danger of a division into three completely different systems of occupation.
France is to be invited to join in the occupation of Germany. The definition of her zone is to be left to the decision of the representatives of the four powers on the European Advisory Commission. Little has been said about the reorganisation of a Germany purged of Nazism and militarism, whether she is to be a centralised Power or a federation or whatever else her constitution is to be.
REPARATIONS
On one question, however, a decision has been reached ╤ namely the question of reparations. The official announcement is not explicit. It confines itself to stating that Germany will be obliged to make compensation ╥to the greatest extent possible,╙ and that a commission working in Moscow will decide how it shall be done.
That there have been different views, especially between Russia and the United States, about reparations is no secret.
The Crimean Conference has been a Great-Power conference, but the European nations not consulted in it will note with satisfaction that the Powers intend to hold a United Nations╒ conference to prepare the charter for an organisation for world security.
