DRIFT TOWARDS WAR SEEN

Chronicle (Levin), 4 March 1948, Page 5

DRIFT TOWARDS WAR SEEN

(N.Z.P.A.-

—Reuter

Lords Discuss Last Week's Events r

CcmiirtQfit)

Received Thursday, 10.40 a.m. . ■ LONDON, March 3. Russian policy had shown a new and sinister side, said the Opposition Leader, the Marquis of Salisbury, in the House of Lords during the debate on foreign affairs. Hitler's qualities had become apparent in the directors of Russian policy.. The Marquis of Salisbury said Britain was anxious to , maintain good relations with Russia if possible, ■ but last week's events made it im possible to ignore any longer the threat hanging over Europe. o " » "Unless the present trend of Russian policy is reversed, there is a real danger that the whole dreadful tragedy of 1939 will be re-enacted.

"If further conflict in Europe is to be avoide'd," added the Marquis of Salisbury, "a closer association with the nations of Western Europe, economically and militarily, is urgently necessary. It is no longer a question of avoiding a division .of Europe into East and West, but of preventing the swallowing of Western Europe by the' East." * Lord Pakenham said that the way to save the world from Communism without war lay in defence and the sparing of no effort to live in charity with Russia. "The Commupist overthrow of Czechoslovakia was Hitlerite in technique and utterly damnable. Now Finland isi being approached with the kiss of I death." Lord Pakenham added: "What-i ever happens, the people of Austria ! can be assured of our unshakeablei support for the integrity and inde- 1 pendence of their eountry." j Lord Pakenham, ref erring to i events in Honduras and the

Antarctic, said: "Those who think the time has come when we can be kicked around with impunity are making the mistake of. their lives." He sai'd that one lesson from the' depressing events in Czechoslovakia and Finland was that the organisations, whether > Governments, trades unions or any other kind, should not let the Communists join them, otherwise sooner or later they would be eaten up. The Communists' great advantage was their 'utter unscrupulousness. They hit below the belt. Viscoupt Cecil said that the recollection of the last four or five years should be enough to make | war on a iarge scale impossible for 'a long time, but it was-true that there was a strong drift * towards war. Lord Vansittart said that what Stalin had done in Czechoslovakia showed clearly that he would- run the risk of a European war as recklessly as Hitler if it were not for the restraining factor of American strength.