RUSSIA AND PEACE

Hokitika Guardian, 27 July 1928, Page 2

RUSSIA AND PEACE

United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) BERLIN, July 2;j. I lie “ Berliner Tageblatt ” publishes an article from its Moscow correspondent, Paul Herr Scheffer, iment the Soviet attitude toward the Kellogg Pact. It expresses opinions that presumably, are those of Scheffer himself, that it is possible to read in them an expression of the official Soviet view. Herr Scheffer considers that such a pact must remain an empty formula if it lacks the Soviet’s signature, and he suggests guardedly that Moscow would gladly adhere to it if it were sure that no opposition would arise. Undoubtedly the United States deserves the Russians’ adherence, but it cannot make any approach as. theoretic-al-ly, the Soviet Government does not exist in the eyes of the Government at AA’ashington.

Herr Scheffer says that lie has not the slightest doubt that the Soviet’s present desire is peace. She is more to blame for the hostile words and actions of others than she admits, but the decisive factor in the security of the Soviet Union, and the possibility that the next storm hurst on this front will extend everywhere. Tile fear of the Soviet’s encirclement is the real spectre in Moscow, and, accordingly, the greater the inducement to accompany the Powers on the road to friendship, and to play a part on the world stage as an equal among equals. There is deep Scepticism over-looking at Kremlin regarding the Soviet foreign relations, which causes a preparation of the party and of the masses for a coming war “ against the proletarian state.”

Just as the Soviet urgently wishes to relieve the tension in and about Russia. arising from this nightmare of war, says Herr Scheffer, so is the question a decisive and more pressing one for Europe, because it is gradually i,locking the way to a settlement with the Reds and the mysterious East. “The activity in the west over the organisation- for peace,” the correspondent says, “proceeds simultaneously with a retrogression towards war and anarchy in the eastern half of Europe. The Kellogg Pact is possibly a chance to arrest this process, and to give it a turn for the better. The Soviet, hy entering the ranks of the pact powers would gain a more active interest in entering the League ol Nations, which is the American conception of thorough ingenuousness arid simplicity, and would bring it nearer the original task, namely the maintenance of peace.”