RUSSIA’S CONTRADICTIONS

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20957, 9 November 1939, Page 6

RUSSIA’S CONTRADICTIONS

Molotoff’s allegation that Britain and France are seeking to extend their influence in the Balkans and in Scandinavian countries for the purpose of increasing their colonial possessions comes strangely from a country that has recently seized half of Poland and is rapidly forging its way into the Baltic States. It is grossly untrue that either Britain or France seeks to extend its dominion through this war, but it has been amply proved that Russia is guilty of the crime with which she charges others. In a sane world that position would seem ludicrous, but today it has become simply a commonplace occurence.

There is, however, some cause for satisfaction with Molotoff’s declaration that Russia will not in any circumstances be drawn into the conflict. Possibly there should be the qualification that she will not violate territory of other nations unless by her loose relationship with Germany other easy and possibly bloodless conquests fall into her lap as did the other half of Poland. She has proved that she is not above accepting a share of the crumbs that fall from the table of her more venturesome and less scrupulous partner in the new Nazi-Communist “axis.” Nevertheless her policy of “neutrality” and her refusal to give direct military aid to Germany will be given their full significance in the Allied countries. But Molotoff’s protestations of peaceful innocence contrast strangely with his subsequent assertion that “the growth of our inner strength and international authority is the sacred duty of the Soviet Union and remains unshakable. It has increased our territory and become still more terrifying to our enemies.” He further boasts that the “Annexation of East Poland was one of the greatest success of the Soviet Union’s foreign policy. The Soviet Union will remain faithful to its policy of peace and proletarian internationalism.” This, apparently, is the code of peace and honour sponsored by the Nazi regime. It is the new standard of international morality adopted by the dictator States and, incidentally, is the very evil which has drawn Britain and France into the war in defence of an older and more lasting code of ethics which the democratic countries are prepared to defend with their lives and all their resources.