CONSIDERABLE POPULAR IMPATIENCE IN RUSSIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 July 1942, Page 4

CONSIDERABLE POPULAR IMPATIENCE IN RUSSIA

According to “Times” Correspondent in Moscow AGREEMENT OF EIGHT WEEKS AGO RECALLED QUESTION RAISED IN HOUSE OF COMMONS (By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 12.15 pan.) LONDON, July 23. “News from the south is making’ the Russian public increasingly conscious that eight weeks have passed since the [ agreement between London, Moscow and. Washington that the creation of a second European battlefront this year was a task of immediate importance,’’ says “The Times’’ Moscow correspondent. it would be vain to attempt to conceal the fact that there is now very considerable popular impatience—and public opinion has become a powerful force in the Soviet Union. Both in the Army and in the factory certain reactions have set in to the high hopes so freely expressed last month. The Germans are not missing the opportunity to exploit the situation. Propaganda leaflets have been showered over the Russian lines on the south-western and southern fronts dealing with little else except the relations between the Soviet and its allies. A story is in circulation in Moscow of how German prisoners at Voronezh shouted an opinion that the Hungarians were better allies to the Germans than Britain was to Russia. The Russians, however, are too resolute and too astute to be shaken by this mendacious propaganda. Explanations of British and American weighty problems are listened to with understanding. The authorities today notably contributed to Anglo-Soviet good relations by publishing widely, in extenso, Sir Stafford , Cripps’s interview last March with the American magazine “Life,’’ but the idea is getting around that the desirability of a second European battlefront has become a question of political controversy in Britain. This is having an unfortunate effect. ’ ’ “Does Sir Stafford Cripps realise that demonstrations are going on throughout the country, that workpeople everywhere are agitated, and that newspaper propaganda is going on daily?’’ asked Mr Aneurin Bevan, in the House of Commons, when questioning the wisdom of Parliament’s projected summer recess. How would it be possible for Parliament to adjourn, Mr Bevan asked, when the country and newspapers were agitated about the Government’s military intentions? Mr Bevan asked for a secret session to discuss the matter. Sir Stafford Cripps said it would be impossible to announce the Government’s intentions, either in public or in secret session.