AFTER THE WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 April 1942, Page 4

AFTER THE WAR

THE POLICY OF RUSSIA EUROPEAN SOVIET STATES. A NECESSARY SAFEGUARD. Like its associates, the Soviet Union is convinced that the existence and future security of the Soviets is dependent upon the destruction of Nazism in Germany, writes Major William Yale in the “Christian Science Monitor.” But what will be the policy of Soviet Russia when Nazism is destroyed? One theory is that if the Nazi armies are defeated by those of the Soviet Union, the Soviet leaders would reoccupy the three small Baltic States, the non-Polish eastern portion of what was formerly .Poland, and probably both Bessarabia and Bukovina. These territories would, according to this theory, in that event probably be incorporated in the Soviet Union as integral parts of the Soviet State. It is held unlikely that this would be opposed by Great Britain and the United States. The current propaganda of the Nazis suggests the question as to whether the Soviet leaders will go further and attempt to Sovietise other areas of Eastern and Central and even Western Europe. DEPENDENCE ON CONDITIONS.

It can be assumed that the Soviet policy in regard to other areas in Europe will in part be determined by the conditions which arise at the time of the defeat of the Germans. If this should be accompanied by widespread revolutions in Germany, Hungary, Finland, Rumania and Bulgaria, as well as in the occupied countries, the policy of Soviet Russia might, some think, intervene on behalf of the most radical groups afriong the revolutionists. If, for example, there was an uprising of the German proletariat against the crumbling Nazi regime, and other German groups attempted to prevent a seizure of power by the proletariat leaders; it is possible that these would ask the Soviet Union for help and that Soviet military forces would aid the revolutionists in setting up a German Soviet State.

AVOIDING SERIOUS DIFFERENCES.

The people of the Soviet Union have shown themselves as interested in having the people of Europe establish Soviet States organised on the basis of Socialism as Americans are in having Europe set up political democracies on the American pattern, organised on the basis of capitalism. Americans very generally are convinced that the people of Europe want political democracy and capitalism; the Soviets are just as sure that the “masses” of Europe want the Soviet system and Socialism. If this issue can be agreed upon before the Nazi regime collapses, the possibility of serious differences between the Soviet Union and the United Nations might be avoided. EXPEDITIONARY FORCES. A necessary safeguard against such differences would be a successful conclusion of the war in Asia before the defeat of Nazi Germany, which would permit the presence of expeditionary forces of the United Nations in Western Europe. Then Great Britain and the United States might be expected largely to determine the political and social setup in Western and Central Europe. Without such an Allied ex-' peditionary force the field would necessarily be left open to Russia to determine largely the shape of things.