Unto the Day

"The catch in dealing with the Russians," says one high U.S. official who has been doing it for years, "is that you have to buy everything twice--and the second time you pay more."

When Jimmy Byrnes and Ernie Bevin left Moscow last week Big Three relations were back at the Potsdam stage of cooperation; the agreement on the peace treaties closely followed the Potsdam line. As usual, there had been a slight charge for alterations. At Potsdam, for example, America and Britain had in effect agreed that Russia could run the Baltic states. At Moscow, they added the Balkans.

The world had learned that Big Three communiques never solve as much as they seem to, so optimism over the results was tinged with considerable caution. But by any reckoning, the meeting had at least got big-power collaboration started again. Now UNO could come on from the wings without having the curtain suddenly rung down on it. The peace-making could go forward.

On two vital questions, Turkey and Iran, the three reached no understanding at all. Stalin was said to have told Byrnes and Bevin that Russia must have all of Turkey that ever belonged to the Tsars. Russia also wanted control of the Dardanelles. As for Azerbaijan, the Russians said that the Red revolt there was "spontaneous and normal," an Iranian matter not a subject for Big Three discussion.

At the end, Byrnes was buoyant. Bevin was less buoyant; asked about the future he quoted the Gospel according to St. Matthew: "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Molotov said nothing at all, but Moscow papers applauded the communique.

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