HESITANCY NOTED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 December 1939, Page 7

HESITANCY NOTED

INDICATIONS OF DIVISIONS IN RUSSIA NEW TURN IN SOVIET POLICY. NO EVIDENCE OF STALIN’S FORMER CAUTION. NEW YORK, December 4. The “New York Times’ ” correspondent, Mr G. E. R. Gedye, in a message from Moscow, says the impression in diplomatic circles is that there is a curious hesitancy in the Soviet attitude to the war, which corresponds to all known preliminaries to the invasion. The facts might justify an assumption that high quarters are divided. It may well be true that aggressive Leningrad influences have been trying to persuade M Stalin to move more rapidly and further than is thought wise. Certainly the progress of the Finnish affair has shown no evidence of the caution previously characterising M Stalin’s foreign policy. Admittedly this view directly contradicts that obtaining in Moscow Communist circles, which approve of the invasion in the light of the recent revelation of a new turn in Soviet policy. The correspondent adds that he believes the new programme is intended, with necessary modifications, for wider application, and is particularly intended, when the time is opportune, to be applied to Germany.