BASES IN SIBERIA?

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 May 1943, Page 3

BASES IN SIBERIA?

He said that he possessed complete confidence that Russia would stand up this summer under any German offensive. Ip' reply to questions about Russia, Miß,Churchill said it was not a secret that the Allies would like to make use of bases in Siberia at the appropriate time against Japan, but he felt it was not his place to suggest a new strategy to the Soviet Government The Russian leaders certainly must know that Japan had watched her with a purely opportunist eye. The Russians had been great allies and had written new pages in the history of warfare by their heroic resistance against odds which at one time seemed insurmountable.

Questioned about the prospects of Russia fighting Japan after the European phase had been completed, Mr Churchill remarked that the fact must have been overlooked, but he had not been given control of the Russians. He added that he certainly did not feel he should ask the British Government to request any more of Russia, which had been doing something no one else could have done in holding the weight of 190 German and 28 satellite divisions. “But Russia must know that Japan is watching her with a purely opportunist eye,” he added. Mr Churchill remarked that he liked the dissolution of the Communist International.