None Against

The significance of the vote was more moral than mathematical. That the House of Commons would approve Winston Churchill's part in the Yalta talks was a foregone conclusion. But that he would win that rare, almost unique honor--a unanimous, all-party vote of confidence--was a significant gesture to the world as well as to the man. The 413-to-0 vote proclaimed proudly that, after five and a half years of war, Winston Churchill was still unchallenged leader of the British people.

The Prime Minister's report on Yalta was not one of his more felicitous utterances, either in matter or manner, news or eloquence. But it marked a milestone in history and it was largely from an awareness of history that the House voted as it did. Even on the highly controversial Polish problem, on which some members had strong mental reservations, Churchill in a preliminary vote won the House for the Soviet solution by 396 votes to 25. Principal points from the speech: World Peace. "It is on the great powers that the chief burden of maintaining peace and security will fall. ... It is their duty to serve the world and not to rule it. We trust that the voting procedure on which we agreed at Yalta meets these two essential points. . . . The former League of Nations . . . will be replaced by a far stronger body in which the U.S. will play a vitally important part."

France. "I have seen criticisms in this country that France was not invited to participate in the conference at Yalta. The first principle of British policy in western Europe is a strong France and a strong French Army. It was, however, felt by all three great powers . . . that while they were responsible for bearing to an overwhelming degree the main brunt and burden of the conduct of the war . . . they could not allow any restriction to be placed on their right to meet together.... France may . . . find many reasons for contentment with the Crimea decisions."

Germany. "The Allies are resolved that Germany shall be totally disarmed; that Naziism and militarism shall be destroyed; that war criminals shall be tried justly and quickly punished; that all German industries capable of military production shall be eliminated or controlled; and that Germany shall make compensation in kind to the utmost of her ability for damage to Allied nations."

Poland. "The Russian claim . . . has always been unchanged for the Curzon Line in the east, and the Russian offer has always been that ample compensation should be gained for Poland at the expense of Germany in the north and west. ... I assert with the utmost conviction the broad justice of the policy upon which, for the first time, all the three great Allies have now taken their stand. ... A most sovereign declaration has been made by Marshal Stalin and the Soviet Union that the sovereign independence of Poland is to be maintained, and this decision is now joined in by Great Britain and the United States. . . . Poles will have their future in their own hands with the single limitation that they must honestly follow, in harmony with their Allies, a policy friendly to Russia."

Russia. "The impression I brought back from the Crimea is that Marshal Stalin and the other Soviet leaders wish to live in honorable friendship and democracy with the western democracies. . . . Terrible indeed would be the fortunes of mankind if some awful schism arose between the western democracies and the Russian people. . . ."

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