OVER RUSSO-GERMAN PACT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 August 1939, Page 6

OVER RUSSO-GERMAN PACT

/ Some Denials That Russia Has Reversed Policy 9. CONTRIBUTION TO EUROPEAN PEACE CLAIMED INDICATIONS OF OFFICIAL SOVIET VIEW (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.14 p.m.) RUGBY August 22. To judge by news reports repelling London from European centres, the announcement of the proposed German-Russian pact at first gave rise to bewilderment everywhere—and not least in Germany, where, in view of the marked difference in the emphasis in the agency statements from Berlin and -Moscow and the absence of an authoritative expression of the views of Russia herself, a host of varied and often contradictory interpretations of this development are in currency. While the critical situation in Europe compels the most serious consideration of an event of this character, commentators everywhere obviously find a difficulty in entirely suppressing light reflections inspired by the spectacle of the author ol the Anti-Comintern Pact hastening to the Soviet capital. In most countries the tendency—fostered by the nasty and triumphant terms in which the forthcoming negotiations have been heralded in the German and Italian Press—to see the proposed pact as a reversal of Russian policy, has given way, on consideration, to a realisation that that is far from being its only or most likely significance. This way of regarding the matter derived strength from later agency reports from Moscow.

A message received in London, for example, attributes to authoritative Soviet quarters the view that a Soviet-German ncn-iaggression pact would be a serious step to ensure peace in Europe. Some circles are said to insist that such a pact would in no way be incompatible with a defensive alliance between the Soviet, England and France. This indication of the official Soviet view is regarded among journalists in Moscow as of the utmost importance,' as revealing the undiminished desire of Russia to pursue the Anglo-Soviet negotiations to a successful conclusion.