SOVIET PRAISE FOR BRITISH CONVOYS

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5284, 21 December 1946, Page 5

SOVIET PRAISE FOR BRITISH CONVOYS

(Press Assn-

ARTICLE CORRECTED

' - SERYICES 0F SEAMEN DEEPtY APPRECIATED

-Rec. 9.30 p.m.)

LONDON, Dec. 20. The Moscow newspaper, Pravda, has sharply upbraided Captain V. Andreev, a Soviet naval officer, for his article in the Russian naval journal, Red Fleet, criticising the British Arctic convoys. Pravda said "the article' gave an incorrect and one-sided picture. The Soviet puhlic appraises at their worth both the eompetent operations of the Allied Fleets and the induhitable courage of the British • and American seamen." Pravda objected to "some foreign commentators who represented that the article was anti-British propaganda. Certain London newspapers were interested less in the contents of the article than in an • excuse for a furore. The article does not reflect the Soviet public viewpoint." In London this evening a Foreign Office spokesman expressed , the greatest gratification at the Pravda's correetive on the Red Fleets attack on Britain's wartime convoy tactics. The spokesman said that the references to the gallantry of British seamen and the efficiency of the British convoy operations was particularlv appreciated. The article was considered a valuable contribution to^ Anglo-Russian friendship.