Whose Candle?

On Midsummer Night, along the rivers of Holy Russia, the peasants used to dance and sing around the bonfires; each man floated on the water a wreath of wild flowers and grasses upon which he placed a candle, and whoever's candle burned the longest would, during the coming year, be the most fortunate one in the "village.

The summer solstice, the year's shortest night, seemed short indeed to the diplomats and Parisian socialites passing the illuminated Vendome column. They pressed into Chez Paquin, where a fashion show and ballet celebrated a fateful meeting of the Big Four Foreign Ministers. The night seemed long to newsmen hanging around Suite 116 at the Hotel Meurice, watching the champagne buckets go by toward the room where Secretary Byrnes was entertaining Minister Molotov. In time the buckets came out empty--but no news came with them. Two U.S. Army privates guarded Byrnes's door, and just to be sure, Molotov had brought his own guard--a Red Army lieutenant general, epaulets and all, who paced up & down in front of the G.I.s.

Point of Rest. Whether the champagne was buoyant enough to lift agreement from the bog of stubborn deadlock, none knew at week's end. But the attitude of both U.S. and Russian delegates indicated that at Byrnes's private dinner U.S. policy was expressed more firmly than it had ever been before. In this lay such hope of agreement as there was. For the West at last realized that, if Hitler's repeated prediction of a deadly clash between the Eastern and Western allies was to be avoided, success would not come through appeasement of Russia's expansionist drive, but by finding a point at which the forces could rest with some mutual security and confidence.

Trieste was the test. Byrnes had been stubborn on one point: the city would not be handed over to Tito. But at the meetings Byrnes showed great flexibility on details ; although opposed in general to internationalized cities (too much like Danzig), he was even willing to see Trieste put under international control for five or ten years. Molotov waited quietly for word from his Vozhd (boss) in Moscow.

"Equality of Dissatisfaction." Since Stalin had probably promised Trieste to Tito, any solution would have to save face all around. France's Georges Bidault, doing a magnificent job as conciliator in the midst of his other troubles (see FOREIGN NEWS), hit on just the right phrase: "We are striving here for an equality of dissatisfaction."

To contemplate a settlement in which everyone was dissatisfied, yet satisfied that his dissatisfaction was balanced by that of the others, may have been a brand new idea to the Russians. At first, the smallest and vaguest deals were blown up into diplomatic triumphs. The N. Y. Herald Tribune joyously reported "the first break in the log-jam." What was it? Merely that "a private meeting appointed a committee to study a plan to postpone the [Italian] colonial question for a year."

Later, when the Ministers agreed that U.S. and British troops would leave Italy, and that Russian troops would leave Bulgaria, the conference seemed to be making real, if limited, progress. This was not achieved without a sharp conflict. Molotov expressed doubt that the Western Powers meant to leave Italy soon. "The reported enlargement of airfields [in Italy]," he said, "suggests the troops plan to stay a long time." Thumbs in vest, eyes flashing, Jimmy Byrnes told Molotov off: "I hear reports every day of what Soviet troops are doing in Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Rumania, but I learned long ago not to believe all the reports I hear--and I recommend that policy to my Soviet colleague."

Even if Trieste and the other Italian obstacles were hurdled, two tougher jumps --Austria and Germany--lay ahead. But Byrnes was determined not to let the peace stall; he said the U.S. would insist on a full-dress, 21-nation peace conference this summer, whether or not the Big Four reached complete agreement. Molotov demurred, but not as vehemently as at the last conference. The Soviet press spokesman at Paris, Zinchenko, said: "We hope to have a peace conference by August." To prepare the way, Byrnes proposed a 25-year, four-power control pact on Japan, similar to the U.S. proposal for Germany (TIME, June 17).

Steady Light. On the whole, things looked better. Even if the second Paris meeting did not end in agreement, the issues were at least clear cut, and the Russian game of prolonging Europe's distress and confusion was about played out. The Midsummer Night's meeting in the Meurice saw many candles in the political stream; judging by the way the U.S. delegation was shielding the flame of U.S. principle, Americans had every reason to hope that theirs would not be the first to gutter.

*After the session Senator Vandenberg went up to congratulate Bidault on his ban mot. Amateur Historian Vandenberg (Alexander H"milton, the Greatest American; 1921), added: """--t Jt is not original: Talleyrand said it at Vienna." Professional Historian Bidault agreed.

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