SOVIET EMPIRE MAY BE EXTENDED INTO MIDDLE EAST

Grey River Argus, 18 September 1948, Page 5

SOVIET EMPIRE MAY BE EXTENDED INTO MIDDLE EAST

LONDON, Sept. 16. “Signs are increasing that Russia has begun an intensified campaign of penetration in the Near and Middle East,” says a special correspondent in Cyprus of the Daily Telegraph. “This drive seems to.be a partial diversion of activity after Communist checks in Europe and the Americas. It is probably linked with the mounting Soviet offensive in the Far East. “In spite of stringent anti-Com-munist measures in the Arabs States the Palestine war and some social unrest have provided Russia with this opportunity. “Particularly active are Communist underground organisations in Syria and Lebanon, traditional hothouses of dissident movements in this part of the world. For the Arabs in Palestine, both in the Jewish and Arab areas, the Communist stalkinghorse is the so-called ‘Arab Committee of National Liberation.” In Egypt the students provide perennially susceptible material for agitators. In Iraq and Persia new cells of Communism are known to have been recently created among the oil workers.

"Transjordan and Saudi Arabia, with their more primitive economic and social structure, are harder problems for the Kremlin. But its agents are active in these countries also. “Besides trying to undermine these existing regimes from within, the Communists are also attempting to acerbate nationalist differences between various nations and ethnological groupings. They have had some success with the Kurds and among the tribes of Azerbaijian. "The establishment of a Soviet diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv, capital of Israel, has provided the Russians with their best foothold so far in this region. In the past few weeks since its creation, the Soviet Legation in Tel Aviv has been remarkably active. Outward signs include a wave of proSoviet propaganda in Israel. Russian films and publication are being widely distributed. The Israeli Communist Party, hitherto small, subdued and poor, has put on a marked spurt of work and is spending more money than ever before. It is expected that the Soviet Legation will be enlarged soon. “Ancillary methods of Russian infiltration, such as visits by “cultural” missions from Russia and her satellites, are beginning to come into effect. Some notorious Communist agents have recently returned to the Near East and have renewed their operations. They include several specially trained multiligual Americans. . . . „ ~ . "The authorities in Cyprus, which has assumed a new importance as a British and American base in the eastern Mediterranean, report rising Communist activity.”