Improvement

After weeks of tension, Big Three relations improved.

P: Winston Churchill, leading the Tory election campaign, was sensitive to Labor's charge that his policy was anti-Russian. He took a strong stand against socialism in Britain, but a stronger one in favor of cooperation with the Soviet Union. "Our prevailing hope is that the foundations will be laid on the indissoluble agreement of Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union."

P: In Moscow Stalin made concessions. The most conspicuous, though perhaps not the biggest, was agreement on the Security Council veto issue (see The Conference). As Harry Hopkins, who had achieved the veto agreement, left Moscow for Berlin, reports circulated in Washington and Europe that he had also talked Stalin into a settlement of the Polish issue. Even if he had not, the reports themselves were evidence of a feeling that the clouds were lifting.

P: Marshal Georgy K. Zhukov said he soon would welcome foreign newsmen to Berlin. He killed a wild report that the Red Army was mustering in 15-year-olds by saying it was considering demobilization instead.

P: U.S. and British military missions were finally in Vienna, paving the way for joint occupation. Russian troops were "thinning out" from the British occupation zone in Austria. The U.S. Embassy in Prague opened. In Hungary, Bulgaria and Rumania, Russian military authorities still made unilateral decisions, but Washington thought it saw signs that this phase, provided for in armistice terms, would end soon.

P: From Trieste, three weeks ago the hottest spot of all, Marshal Tito agreed to withdraw his troops, provided his action did not prejudice Yugoslavia's case against Italian control of the strategic Adriatic port.

P: In the U.S. came a development more important than any concession. The House of Representatives voted 345-to-18 for the Bretton Woods bill (see U.S. AT WAR). Britain and Russia could be assured that the U.S. was in world affairs to stay.

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