U.S.A. & SOVIET

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 October 1940, Page 5

U.S.A. & SOVIET

’DISCUSSIONS IN PROGRESS REGARDING TRIPARTITE PACT. SOME HOPES ENTERTAINED IN WASHINGTON. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.5 a.m.) WASHINGTON, October 3. Administration sources said that the United States is attempting to discourage Russia from joining the Japanese-! t alia n-Ger man alliance.

It is disclosed that informal Russian and American conversations have been resumed in Moscow, it is reported as a continuation of the Welles-Ouman-sky conversations, which collapsed partly because Russia demanded more liberal privileges in the United States for Russian “tourists,” whom the United States contended were very often Communist agitators. Washington officials felt that there was a greater possibility of success in dealing directly with high Russian officials than with M. Oumansky whom Mr Sumner Welles is reported to dislike personally, so Mr Steinhardt, when in Moscow last month, was instructed to take up the conversations there. He has been conferring intermittently with M. Molotov and is reported to be making some headway. The Administration sees little chance of Russia actively co-operating in combating (he political and military ambitions of the members of the Tripartite Pact, but hopes that Russia may be persuaded to remain inactive, especially in the Far East.