Shape of Uncertainty

Winston Churchill had reason to lower his head, glare, bark his characteristic short, harsh "rumph." He was not doing at all well in some of his dealings with the new giant of Europe, Joseph Stalin. Last week the endless battle of dissembled pressures went no better. After two more stormy sessions with Poland's distracted Premier in Exile, Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, Churchill found it necessary to send a second personal note to the impassive man in the Kremlin.

While the note was being prepared, elaborately unofficial sources let newsmen understand that a new, reluctant Polish offer fell far short of Moscow's categoric minimums. Churchill faced the galling prospect that his second note on behalf of his passionate, intractable charges would fall as flat as the first.

Moscow censors permitted a Reuters correspondent to spell out one reason for the recent friction between Russia and her allies. The cabled reason: "Widespread belief among Russians that the date of the second front has been postponed. . . ."

The spires of St. Basil's on Moscow's Red Square were touched with sun last week for the first time in two bleak months. Cracked passers-by:, "If spring is here, can the second front be far behind?" Cracked dour, war-worn Muscovites: "Yes."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.