SOVIET AMBASSADOR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 March 1940, Page 5

SOVIET AMBASSADOR

RECALLED FROM FRANCE FOLLOWING ON GOVERNMENT DEMAND. INTRUSION ON INTERNAL LIFE OF REPUBLIC. By Telegraph—Pi-ess Association —Copyright. LONDON, March 27. The Moscow radio announced that M. Souritz, the Soviet Ambassador in France, has been recalled following a demand by the French Government because of a telegram he sent to M. Stalin on the occasion of the signing of the Russian-Finnish peace treaty.

The French Government objected to the telegram as an intrusion on France’s internal political life.

TACTLESS TELEGRAM FRENCH PROTEST & SOVIET DECISION. PARIS, March 27. The French Charge d’Affaires in Moscow informed the Soviet Foreign Minister, M. Molotov, on March 19 that France regarded certain sentences in M. Souritz’s telegram as tactless toward the French Government. The passages objected to included the following: “Because of the wisdom of the Government of the Soviet Union and the bravery of the Red Army, the British and French warmongers’ plans to extend the war to north-east Europe have again suffered a defeat.” “Soviet Russia remains an impregnable fortress, against which all of Socialism’s enemies will be shattered.”

Though the’ French censorship did not transmit the telegram, the French Government informed M. Souritz that he was no longer persona grata and expressed the desire for his recall. The Soviet Government replied yesterday that it did not consider the French action justified, as the telegram did not mention the French Government. Nevertheless, it added, as M. Souritz was no longer persona grata he would be recalled.