Four Flags Together

The post-war world reached the blueprint stage last week. Britain, Russia, China and the U.S.--the four great Allied powers--had got down to making agreements, not only for the war, but for the peace. At meetings in London and Washington (TIME, June 8) they were speaking to one another frankly and, more important, agreeing jointly.

For, if the war is to be won, those four must fight it jointly; and after they have won, those four, if they agree, can enforce the terms of peace as no one or two could enforce it alone.

The significant fact was that Russia and Britain, which have behind them a century of rivalry, suspicion and ill will, had come to a long-term understanding. That fact alone could change the history of Europe as it had not been changed in modern history.

Russia was the prime mover for agreement. Stalin had opened the discussions by asking Britain, as an earnest of permanent friendship, to promise that in the peace settlement Russia should recover the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), as well as a part of Poland, to serve as protection against future German aggression. From the standpoint of Russia, that was perhaps no more unreasonable than for the U.S. to ask for the Japanese-mandated islands in the Pacific as protection against future Japanese assaults.

But the U.S. opposed such a settlement--and could not, either legally or politically, make a secret treaty about future European boundaries. Britain was reluctant to agree without U.S. approval.

Instead of bringing the discussions to an end, the Russians did not press their original point but went on to broader terms of agreement. All the signs indicated last week that agreement had been reached.

Signs that Britain was on the verge of a great new international alignment have been many in recent weeks. Not only have common people jammed Trafalgar Square to demand a second front in 1942 (see cut), but the old guard in the House of Lords have paid glowing tribute to Russia. Said Viscount Samuel: "It is Britain's duty, not only to help Russia's war effort, but also to associate ourselves with her in the fullest possible measure in framing the course of world settlement after the war." Lord Brabazon, long known as anti-Red, proposed a post-war international police force consisting of U.S., Russian and British air forces. The conservative National Union of Manufacturers, roughly corresponding to the N.A.M. in the U.S., presented this memorandum to the Board of Trade: "Any plans for the future of world trade can only be made effective if they have the cordial assent and cooperation of Russia."

Not since before World War I has much that Britain has done had the approval of Russia, and vice versa. Not since the rise of Hitler had Britain and Russia been able to agree on even an effective basis of mutual self-preservation. When they tried to get together in 1939 the British balked at Russian control of the Baltic States (which last year helped to save Leningrad) and Russia plumped into the non-aggression pact with Germany. Later Britain helped Finland against Russia. Even after Hitler's attack on Russia last year, some Britons' abhorrence of Communism led them to hope that somehow Germany and Russia would destroy each other, while Russians remained equally suspicious of their capitalist ally.

By last week war's comradeship had tempered most of these memories. The world noted well an incident that symbolized the relations of the four new Allies:

On Brandon Hill, in Bristol, two huge cannon, which for 87 years had pointed their empty mouths over the town, were being dismounted. They were Russian cannon, which Bristol lads had captured in the Crimean War, at the siege of Sevastopol in 1854-55, and had brought home as trophies. But now Bristol lads were fighting on Russia's side, and the cannon, heavy with good iron, could be melted down to be made into modern weapons.

As the cannon were hauled off to the steel works, they were preceded by a band of Royal Marines. The Union Jack flew over them; so did the Stars & Stripes and China's twelve-pointed star. And so, for the first time in 87 years, did a Russian flag, a red flag with a hammer and a sickle.

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