IN MOSCOW AGAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 December 1943, Page 3

IN MOSCOW AGAIN

STALIN’S FIRST TRIP ABROAD FOR 31 YEARS. LONDON, December 4. Premier Stalin is believed to have returned to Moscow from Teheran, but official confirmation is not yet forthcoming. The people of Moscow have enthusiastically welcomed the news of his meeting with the British and American leaders, which is at present the main topic of conversation. A spokesman of the British Embassy in Moscow said that the British and American ambassadors left Moscow a fortnight ago to attend the conference, and the heads of the British and American military missions and also the diplomatic staffs accompanied them. Long-distance travel was hard and grim in 1912, and perhaps that is one reason why Stalin did not make any foreign journeys after* his return from a mission to Vienna from Moscow in that year, when- he carried to Vienna letters from the Bolshevjsts to the Social Democrats of Cracow, in the old Austro-Hungarian empire. Stalin, in the 31 years snce then, never crossed the Russian frontiers, but twice previous to 1912 he voyaged in merchantships. Stalin visited London in 1907 to attend the Social Democrat congress, and he also voyaged to Stockholm. In the sace of 10 years he made seven involuntary pourneys to Siberia during the stormy last year of the Tsarist regime, and each time he was condemned to prisons more and more remote from western Russia. His last journey to exile was the most uncomfortable of his life; he was condemned to Kqreika, which is beyond the Artic Circle.

KEEN INTEREST

MANIFESTED IN TURKEY. NEUTRALS AS WELL AS BELLIGERENTS AFFECTED. LONDON, December 3. The consultations between the heads of the Governments of the four principal Allied Powers, representing the will and power of more than 1,000,000 people, have kept Turkish opinion, like that of the entire world, in a state of expectation, says the Ankara correspondent of “The Times.” The Turkish Press comments can be summarised as follows: —“The mere fact of these meetings occurring is evidence that the meeting of the Foreign Ministers in Moscow was a success and paved the way for'the present deliberations. The important and far-reaching effects of the meetings will be world-wide, and will probably be felt for many years after the war. The decisions taken at the meetings will affect not only the belligerents but probably also the neutrals.” It is this last thought which induces the Turkish people to believe that the ‘Turkish case’ will have been discussed. The Turkish Government, after the Eden-Menemencoglu meeting in Cairo, carried out an exhaustive examination of the situation and communicated to the British Government their viewpoint on the question of the time and manner in which Turkey might eventually carry out her obligations arising from hei’ treaty of alliance. with Britain. It is expected that this Turkish reply .will be perused by the big three and that the Turkish Government may soon receive a communication of the reaction which that Turkish reply has produced among the Allied Powers.