First Fruit

THE PRESIDENCY Transplanted to Washington, the talks continued. Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were now making their sixth war conference their longest.

Was this conference also their most fruitful? No one, except the tight-lipped principals, could yet say. But last week came the first evidence of accomplishment.

> The first result of Quebec was limited recognition by the U.S. and Britain of the French Committee of Liberation. This action did not fully clear up the ambiguity of policy toward France, did not fully satisfy the French patriots in Algiers. It was, nevertheless, a forward step--and perhaps the strongest commitment that could now be made by two nations which must some day invade Germany through France.

>The second result was the appointment of Lord Louis Mountbatten as Allied Commander in East Asia. This step made as clear as anyone could expect that an end had been put to ambiguity in British and American military policy in the Far East. It proved that the British were now 1) willing to undertake a major campaign against the Japs, 2) glad to assume responsibility for the campaign, 3) committed, by the choice of a young and vigorous commander, to push the campaign as forcefully as possible. The Churchill line became one of savage verbal pounding of the Jap.

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