PACT WITH RUSSIA?

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 179, 1 August 1939, Page 6

PACT WITH RUSSIA?

The conclusion o£ a British pact with Russia has been reported so often to. be imminent that most people will believe it only when they see an official announcement. There have been many guesses at the causes of the delay, but it seems fairly well established that the greatest obstacle to the pact has been the differences over the Baltic States. The Governments are understood to have agreed on the principles of a three-Power defensive agreement, and on the necessity of defending certain smaller States against aggression, direct or indirect. The British wanted to guarantee Belgium, Poland, Rumania, Greece and Turkey. The Russians wanted to add Finland, Estonia and Latvia. The British then pointed out their special interest in the Netherlands and Switzerland. The Baltic States mentioned, though fearing Germany, fear Russia, too;

they were unwilling to be guaranteed. And ' it proved very difficult to define "aggression." At this point the negotiations have apparently halted for weeks. But the ! reports that British and French military j missions are going to Russia suggest that j some agreement, possibly expressed in broad j terms, will soon be announced. It might have value as a deterrent, but the mutual suspicions which have undoubtedly hindered i the Powers in their four months' hard I bargaining incline many people to the view that it would be an agreement upon which certain reliance could not be placed. 1