MOSCOW DOUBT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20071, 18 October 1939, Page 5

MOSCOW DOUBT

BLOCKADE EFFICACY CO-OPERATION HINTED j A RUMOUR DISCOUNTED HELPING SUBMARINES (Reed. Oct. 18, 9 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 17. A. report from Moscow states that the Soviet paper Izvestia reveals that Russia is strengthening her fleet. The journal adds: “A complete blockade of Germany is impossible despite the British and French naval supremacy. Russia and Germany are working out co-operation.” In a message dispatched yesterday, the Moscow correspondent of the New York Times, Mr. G. E. R. Gedye, states that diplomatic circles in Moscow considered that reports that Russian submarines were reinforcing the German submarines in the North Sea were German propaganda to frighten the Allies into abandoning the war. “There is no reason to suspect that the Soviet is contemplating such an international outrage as secret participation,” stated the correspondent. “Theoretically, it is possible to sell submarines to Germany, but technically it is unlikely in view of the difficulties of operating .strange types. “It is improbable that Russia will weaken her Baltic defences and reveal her submarine secrets. There are many reasons why Russia is unlikely to provoke war against the Allies, including the one that it would block all supplies of rubber, tin, and English and -United States machines, on which the -five-year plan is dependent, and expose the Far East trade, the Black Sea and Vladivostok to attack.”