SOVIET HESITANCY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 136, 6 December 1939, Page 12

SOVIET HESITANCY

ATTITUDE TO WAR

SUGGESTION OF DIVIDED

OPINION

NEW YORK, December 5.

The "New York Times" correspondent, Mr. Gedye, in a message ironi Moscow, says the impression in diplomatic circles is that there is a.curious hesitancy about the Soviet attitude to the war which corresponds to all the known preliminaries of an invasion. The facts might justify the assumption ■that high quarters are divided. • It may well be true, hie states,'.that aggressive influences in Leningrad have been trying to persuade M. Stalin to move more rapidly and further, than is thought^ wise. Certainly the progress of the Finnish affair has shown no evidence of the caution whicli; previ-, ously has characterised -M. Stalin's foreign policy. Admittedly this. view directly contradicts that obtaining .in Moscow. Communist circles, which ap-. prove of the invasion in, the light .of the recent revelation of anew turn in Soviet policy. The correspondent adds that he believes the new programme is intended, with necessary modifications, for.wider application, and is particularly intend, ed, -jvhen the time is opportune, to b# applied to Germany. "