SIR RONALD CROSS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 July 1941, Page 4

SIR RONALD CROSS

STATEMENT ABOUT SOVIET SYSTEM REAL MEANING NOT CONVEYED FEDERAL PRIME MINISTER’S COMMENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, July 17. Commenting on the reference by the Minister of the Navy, Mr Hughes, to the statement on Russia by the new United Kingdom High Commissioner to Australia, Sir Ronald Cross, the Prime Minister, Mr Menzies, said that Mr Hughes had expressed his own and not the Commonwealth Government’s views. “Sir Ronald is a hightly-qualified man, fresh from Britain,” added Mr Menzies. “If he is not at liberty to make a statement respecting what he believes to be the opinion in Britain with regard to Communism, then I mistake the functions of the High Commissionership.” Sir Ronald Cross, when questioned on his interview, said that the newspaper in question had taken its quotation out of the context of his statement, and thus did not convey his real meaning. He agreed entirely with Mr Churchill’s observations about Russia, made the day after tne* orea& with Germany. When asked whether he made the statement that it was only a matter of opinion whether Nazism or Communism was the worse, Sir Ronald replied: “Surely nobody here will wish to argue about that —or will they?” Sir Ronald Cross was reported to, have stated that the Russian was hated throughout the length and breadth of England and that only a tiny minority thought it better than dictatorship. Mr Hugnes retorted “Russia is our ally and those who hate her are certainly no friends of Britain.”