NOT OPPORTUNISM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 August 1941, Page 6

NOT OPPORTUNISM

THE RUSSIAN AGREEMENT

WITH POLAND

ACCORDING TO REUTER CORRESPONDENT. REVIVAL OF ANTI-FASCIST FRONT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, August 1. “M. Stalin’s signature of the Russian-Polish agreement is not opportunism, nor dictated by a desire to please Britain, but is a significant indication of future Russian international policy,” says Reuter’s special correspondent in Moscow. He adds that while a fierce battle continues in Western Russia, developments vitally important to both the progress of the war and to post-war Europe have occurred in the diplomatic field. The agreement with Poland is an example of this. It is a bold and startling stroke, characterising Soviet foreign policy, which has returned to the idea of an anti-Fascist and anti-aggres-sion front. This was very dear io M. Stalin's heart years ago, when it was manifested in Russian adherence to the League of Nations. It is now freely admitted that the so-called partition of Poland in 1939 was merely to prevent the Germans approaching even closer to vita] Russian territory. Rus-sian-occupied Poland absorbed the initial shock of the German onslaught. The Russian-Polish agreement does not settle territorial problems, but the “Pravda” and other newspapers comment in a highly significant way in welcoming the restoration of Poland’s “creative” powers.