Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, APRIL 14, 1941. UNEASINESS IN RUSSIA.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, APRIL 14, 1941. UNEASINESS IN RUSSIA.

POLLOWING on what has gone before, an official Soviet intimation to Hungary that it disapproves that country’s attack on Yugoslavia is of some significance. Although a protest only is involved, it counts for something that the Soviet is continuing to express the disapproval of Axis aggression in the Balkans which was already implied in pacts concluded recently with Yugoslavia and Turkey and in a rebuke to Bulgaria for submitting to Nazi domination. Though there is as little indication as ever that the Soviet contemplates assisting any Balkan State fighting in defence of its liberties, it is fairly obvious that Stalin and his colleagues perceive an increasing menace to Russia in the German south-eastern drive. Today’s news that Russia and Japan have concluded a pact ol neutrality is in keeping with the policy of anxious caution pursued by the Soviet.

As a whole, the current .policy of the Russian Government implies a recognition of the dangers to Russia, mentioned by Mr Winston Churchill in the statement on the war position and outlook he made in the House of Commons on the eve ol the Easter adjournment. Engaging, as he admitted, in speculation, Mr Churchill said that the Germans at any moment might turn on Turkey.

But (he added) there are many signs which point to a Nazi attempt to secure the granary of the Ukraine and the oilfields, of the Caucasus as a German means of gaining resources with which to wear down the English-speaking world.

The Soviet no doubt has excellent reasons lor turning an exceedingly uneasy eye on the latest developments of Nazi military policy. There are, as Mr Churchill observed, many signs which bring a Nazi invasion of the Ukraine and possibly also of the Caucasian oilfields, into nearer prospect. However fortune may turn in the great battle now imminent, if it has not already opened, in. Northern Greece, a raid on Russian resources is not, unlikely to appeal to Hitler and his fellow-gangsters as their next move. If they are cheeked decisively in Greece, a raiding attack on Russia, may seem to offer them consolation. If they are able to extend their success in the Balkans, they may consider that a predatory invasion of. the Ukraine and of the Caucasus should be their logical next steps. The fact that the Nazis are linked with Soviet Russia by treaties which were elaborated in some more or less important details as recently as January last will certainly coijnt for nothing if it appears to the Nazi dictatorship that an attack on Russia offers prospects of advantage.

Soviet Russia’s ostensible policy is still one of friendship with Germany and her rulers no doubt are intent, as they have been, on. profiting by the progressive exhaustion of the nations opposed to one another in the war. The advantages derived by Russia, from non-belligerency are not in all respects, however, as great as might have been expected. Writing in the “Christian Science Monitor” recently, Mr AV. 11. Chamberlin observed that the increasing rigours and hardships of Soviet life, reported by returning travellers and fugitives and confirmed' by the information which leaks out through diplomatic channels, are a result partly of the war and partly of increasing difficulties in the functioning of the Soviet industrial machine.

The Soviet Union (Mr Chamberlin added) has been kept on a war basis, with all that this means in strain on the country’s overburdened transportation system and deprivations for the civilian population. The war has also exerted an indirect adverse effect on the Soviet economy because it has dammed up some channels of international trade and has made it more difficult to import machinery from abroad at a time when all the great industrial nations are either involved in war or are feverishly preparing for national defence.

That Russia and Germany were able to conclude a trade treaty and other pacts only a month or two ago may appear to discount the view that their relations are critically strained. Apart, however, from the well-established fact that pacts with the Nazis are not worth the paper they are written on. it has been pointed out that the Rnsso-German agreements are in extreme contrast to, for instance, the understanding reached by Britain and the United States. This last is a far-reaching expression, of democratic solidarity and one opening the way to.any extension of joint and mutual action which circumstances may demand. The Soviet-Nazi pacts are an attempt only to settle individual items as they arise.

While the Nazis sought to impart immense significance to the signing of the pacts in January, authoritative comment in Moscow took an entirely different line. The Soviet Government organ “Izvestia,” for example, said that Russia, “during 1941, intends to conclude agreements with other powers, belligerent as well as non-belligerent.” The Communist Party organ “Pravda.” observed on the same subject:—“The Soviet Union is steadily carrying out a policy of peace and friendship towards Germany, and is prepared to do likewise with all governments ready to reciprocate.” It is remarkable, an American correspondent in London commented at the time, that simultaneously (i.e., while the January pacts were being signed), Germany ■is going ahead with plans for military auto roads into Poland with spearheads directed toward Moscow, while Russia fortifies its frontiers toward Germany. It is also curious that the Nazis should continue to invite anti-Red Russians abroad to join the White Russian organisation already established in Berlin—invitations including those to many Russian emigrants now in France and elsewhere. Fear of Germany obviously continues to exercise a strong influence on Soviet foreign policy and no doubt trade and other treaties are intended to stave off attack for the time being. Even in pursuing this policy, however, the Soviet is bound to recognise that its success is contingent upon- a measure of Nazi compliance which it would be unwise to take for granted. |