Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1940. A PARTNERSHIP REAFFIRMED.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 August 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1940. A PARTNERSHIP REAFFIRMED.

JF it is remembered at all, the speech by the Soviet Premier, M. Molotov, which was reported yesterday, is likely to be remembered as one of the most insincere utterances ever heard from a responsible representative of a great nation. The Soviet Premier’s principal theme was the solidarity of Russo-German relations. We reiterate our opinion (he said) that the good neighbourly and friendly relations between Russia and Germany are not based on fortuitous and transient considerations, but on the fundamental interests of both countries. If it were true that the Soviet and Nazi dictatorships were as closely united in ■ friendship as these words would imply, it would be implied also that M. Molotov and his colleagues are deliberately betraying the people over whom they rule. Nothing less than that would be implied in intimate and friendly association with a dictatorship which has trampled on the rights and welfare of rank and file population in and beyond its own territory to a degree without parallel in modern history. Ostensibly the Soviet stands for the dictatorship and welfare of the proletariat. To the Nazi dictatorship the proletariat represents simply so much cannon fodder and Avar and industrial material, to be used ruthlessly by a military State. The fact of a great betrayal of humanity by the present rulers of Russia is, of course, written large. By entering into a pact with Nazi Germans’, the Soviet did more than any other government save that of Germany itself to precipitate the present Avar. The partition of Poland, the brutal conquest of Finland and the subjugation of the Baltic States by intrigue and the threat of force are pendants to that initial act of infamy. Passages in M. Molotov’s speech which may be accepted at their face value are those in which he expressed an inimical and hostile attitude to Britain. The days in which it was hoped that Russia might become a strong element in a European peace front have gone by. At the same time the Soviet Premier’s attempts to discount and discredit speculations “in the British and the Anglophile Press” on the possibility of Russo-German disagreements are in the last degree lame and unconvincing. Tn the outlook of the Nazis, as it has been defined explicitly by Hitler, important parts of Russia, notably the Ukraine, are marked doAvn as booty Avhich Nazi Germany Avill gather in at an opportune time. In the extent to Avhich the Soviet has assisted the Nazis in their attack on free humanity, it has paved the Avay for the ultimate undoing of Russia. In point of fact, Avhile this assistance has been given, most of all in the conclusion of the Non-Aggression Pact Avhich preceded the outbreak of Avar, the current policy of the Soviet betrays Arhat might be regarded as some confusion and uncertainty of purpose Avhere Germany is concerned. While M. Molotov Avas fervent in his assurances of “good neighbourly and friendly relations between Russia and Germany,” much of Avhat Russia has done and is doing obviously sums up as preparation to meet an eventual German attack. After referring, in his speech, to Russia’s latest acquisitions on the Danube and in the Baltic as a great success for the Soviet Union, M. MolotoA' said that “the Soviet must keep its entire people in a state of mobilisation so.that no hazard from any exterior enemy could take the country unawares.” Who is the exterior enemy against Avhom these comprehensive precautions must be taken? Assuredly it is not Britain, much less any of the little countries Avhich the Soviet has subjugated or overawed. It is Germany alone, or Germany with Italy as a possible attendant factor, Avhom the Soviet has any reason to regard as a potential enemy. M. Molotov’s talk of friendship Avith Germany and possible friendship Avith Italy is so much twaddle. It is not so long since Mussolini was proclaiming that Italy Avould stoutly oppose any adA’anee of BolsheA’ism south of the Carpathians. At the bidding of his Nazi taskmasters, the Duee has conveniently forgotten these bold Avords, but in view of competing ambitions in the Balkans and elseAvhere any talk of sincere friendship betAveen the Soviet and Italy is ludicrous. The outlook of Nazi Germany is frankly predatory and that outlook has nowhere been proclaimed more openly than Avith reference to Russia. That the Nazis are meantime assuming an attitude of friendship toAvards their intended victim is perfectly in accordance Avith their customary procedure. The alternative to crediting M. MolotoA’ Avith blind stupidity is to .assume that he hopes to outplay the Nazis at their own game and meantime io fortify Russia, by territorial acquisitions and in other Avays, against the impending Nazi attack. HITLER’S “APPEAL TO REASON.” r JpiTERE is definite encouragement to be draAvn from the fact that the Germans have varied their bomb-dropping on Britain by shoAvering leaflets on parts of Southern England, these papers containing, of all things, selected extracts from Hitler’s recent “appeal to reason” speech—his appeal, that is to say, against the unreasonable people Avho decline to accept him at his own valuation as a victor. Ostensibly the leaflets are intended to make known the points of the Fuehrer’s speech to people from Avhom they Avere Avithheld. This, hoAvever, is a palpable pretence. It is of course Avell knoAvn to Hitler and his colleagues that the text of the speech Avas published in British neAvspapers and Avas read by any individual in the country avlio desired to become acquainted Avith its details.

It follows that the real object of the elaborate makebelieve of dropping’ leaflets in England must be to impress, not the British people, but those sections of the population of Germany and perhaps of occupied territories from whom the facts of the war situation can be withheld more or less completely. No other explanation will hold water. The dropping of the leaflets in England can only mean that- the Nazi dictatorship is conscious of some weakness in its bold on its home and subject populations, in spite of all that is being done through the agency of the Gestapo, by an unprecedented development of espionage and terrorism, to make that hold effective. On that account there is, as has been said, definite encouragement to be drawn from the dropping of the Nazi leaflets in. England. It is an action in which there is a definite element of flurry—an action in the same category as the lying reports Germany is issuing from day to day, her denials of the loss even of aircraft that are lying smashed on British soil, her multiplication by five of Britain’s recent shipping losses, her claims of success against warships which would mean, if they were true, that the whole British Navy had been sunk, and much more to a similar effect. The Nazi leaflets in themselves will carry no information to the British people, but, they are interesting evidence of the uneasiness of a dictatorship which dare not let 1 lie truth be known to the people it misrules.