DIPLOMATIC ART

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 107, 8 January 1940, Page 3

DIPLOMATIC ART

STORY OF DOUBLE-DEALING SOVIET RUSSIA CASTIGATED "The history of diplomacy," writes Mr J. A. Spender, in the Sunday Times, "as Avritten and read in a generation after the even.t is in large part a record of double-deal-ing, as indeed the word 'diplomacy' implies, -but we should ransack modern history in vain to find a public instance of this qualuity at all parallel to the sudden defection of Russia. Bismarck, while bound to Russia bj' the Three Emperors' League, went behind her back and concluded a secret treaty with Austria at her expense in 1879, and eight years later repeated the operation by making a secret treaty with Russia at Austria's expense. But these transactions were wrapped in profound secrecy, and Bismarck, when brought to book, gave them the polite name of 'reinsurance.' It never occurred to him in his most daring moments to invite the emis-

saries of one Power to negotiate with him in Berlin, and while they were still his guests and negotiations seemed to be Hearing completion, to invite their opponents to come to the same place at the same time, and arrange with them to adminster a public rebuff to those who came before."