RUSSIAN WAR MENACE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21415, 6 March 1935, Page 9

RUSSIAN WAR MENACE

HIGHLY MILITARISED COUNTRY VIEWS OF AN SOLDIER The opinion that the menace of war would come from Russia rather than from any other European country was expressed in an interview last night by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Godfrey Dalrymple-White, English soldier and former member of the House of Commons, who is visiting Christchurch. Sir Godfrey was asked for his views on the present political state of Europe. The.e was no doubt that Europe was very much like a volcano, he said. But Soviet Russia constituted a frightful danger. This was quite apart from Russian political beliefs, for the country had a greater air force and army than any cf the other countries of Europe. At the same time there had also to be considered the Russian political creed and the desire to spread it all over the world. The real menace from the military point of view might well come from Russia, Sir Godfrey said. The country's enormous population was practically all trained to arms, even to the women, and the children in the schools. The condition of Russia added greatly to the general spirit of unrest. "In England there is a great feeling for peace, and I am sure that no person in the country, while realising the needs of nation in national defence, would for a moment think of a war which savoured of aggression. We nave reduced our armaments more than any other country, while some of those countries have added to theirs enormously." Sir Godfrey added that it was unfortunate for the cause of peace that Mussolini, for whom he had a considerable admiration in other respects, shculd recently have been making appalling warlike statements. But he thought that Italy's young Fascists had got rather out of hand and were shouting for war and colonial expansion. It seemed that it was getting beyond Mussolini to control them.