The Ypsilanti Daily Press

Big Three Meeting in Potsdam

Potsdam, July 16-UP-The Big Three meet in this cradle of Prussianism today in a fateful conference that war-wearied millions around the earth hoped would produce a plan for the swift defeat of Japan and the establishment of lasting peace.

Accompanied by their top military and diplomatic advisers, President Truman, Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin come together for the first time in a heavily-guarded council chamber in the picturesque palace of the late Kaiser Wilhelm.

Mr. Truman, confident and in excellent spirits after his eight-day sea voyage from Washington, was ready to brush aside as much formality as possible and get down to business immediately.

"Brass Tacks"

With his typical energy and "brass tacks" attitude, the President wanted to take up at once the lengthy agenda prepared by each of the participating nations.

His two main objectives frankly were a speedy end to the Pacific war and an agreement on the future world peace which would be at least the forerunner to a full-dress peace conference sometime after Japan's complete surrender.

The Big Three discussions were cloaked by a strictly-enforced censorship that even banned reporters from the immediate conference scene and the only current news while they last-perhaps three weeks or more--was expected to come from periodic official communiques.

Major Topics

But informed observers believed the agenda would cover at least these major topics:

1.-Russia's plans in the Pacific and the results of her interrupted discussions with China.

2--The joint administration of Germany.

3-The reparations to be exacted from beaten Germany: whether in money, goods or manpower or all three. Russia reportedly is asking for 4,000,000 German men to rebuild her ruined cities.

4-Settlement of the various territorial disputes in Europe and the Far East.

See BIG THREE-Page 2
Big Three (Continued from Page One)

territorial claims now being advanced by France, Yugoslavia, Poland, Bulgaria, etc.

5—The Anglo-Russian conflict over Middle Eastern oil resources, including the tied-in problem of the Arab-Jewish impasse in Palestine.

6—Russian territorial demand on Turkey and the Soviet request for revision of the Montreux agreement of 1936, under which the Turks were permitted to fortify the Dardanelles.

7—Reorganization of the Soviet sponsored Austrian government, which Britain and the United States have refused to recognize.

8—The still-unsolved question of the hundreds of thousands of Polish troops who have reiterated their loyalty to the defunct exile government in London and have refused to return to Poland.

More Remote

More remote is the possible discussion of a Russian seat on the control board of the Suez Canal and future joint control of the Panama Canal, which neither Britain nor the United States is likely to concede.

The Levant states' demand for complete independence from France also may come before the Big Three, although in the light of French resentment at Gen. Charles De Gaulle's exclusion from the conference no definitive action on that point appeared likely.