GERMANY'S REAL FEAR

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21715, 24 February 1936, Page 11

GERMANY'S REAL FEAR

RUSSIAN POLITICAL SYSTEM OPPOSITION TO FRANCOSOVIET PACT NO ILL-WILL TO WESTERN POWERS (UNITED I'RKSS association—copyright.) (Received February 23, 8.51 p.m.) LONDON, February 22. The Berlin correspondent of "The Times" says that Germany's hostility to the Franco-Soviet Pact is compounded of indignation, fear and a genuine regret that France, by linking up with an eastern and communist State, is making a western European understanding more difficult. The whole Nazi movement is based on the defeat of communism, for which reason the argument that Germany has only to even out matters by joining the pact is treated with scorn. The idea that Soviet Russia and Hitlerite Germany might under any circumstances be found fighting on the same side is simply ridiculed. The "Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung" expresses the universally held view when it says: "Soviet Russia to-day shows the face of Janus. In spite of all disavowals and subterfuges the Soviet foreign policy and the Comintern are Siamese twins.

"There is also complete agreement with the French high estimate of the value of the Red Army. The Russian soldier is declared to be excellent fighting material, and the leadership of officers and noncommissioned officers to oe of a higher standard than ever before. Moreover, Russia is paying enorous attention to her air power." It is argued that if the FrancoSoviet pact is signed Germany must have an air force in the East, calculated separately from any equality of strengths agreed to between the Western powers.

"Russia the Enemy" All these arguments may be summed up in the one phrase: "Russia—there is the enemy." And by this Germany does not mean only the enemy of Germany, but of all European civilisation. Lord Londonderry has returned from a three weeks' private visit to Germany, in which he spoke with Herr Hitler, General Goering, and other members of the German Cabinet. Pie declares that everywhere he found a most friendly feeling toward Britain.

"I am certain that the development of the German air force is •riot 1 in any' sense directed against Britain," he said. "It is Germany's idea of the best means'of maintaining her security. She has no ill feeling toward France, with whom she would welcome a better understanding, but she certainly fears the Russian political system and its policy of world revolution." It is reported from Berlin that an official sfatement reiterates that Germany regards the FrancoSoviet pact as "a flagrant violation" of the Locarno Treaty.