AFTER STALIN

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28019, 13 July 1956, Page 3

AFTER STALIN

Sir,—l agree the Treaty of Versailles sowed the seeds for World War 11. I think that Stalin followed a logical pa uh in signing a pact with Hitler. Stalin’s strategy of buying time by signing a treaty with Hitler was a mighty clever move that guaranteed him that when war came to Russia he wouldn’t have to fight Hitler on his own, but would have powerful allies. Here was the chosen victim, the U.S.S.R., sidestepping out of the war while the British and French, who had done so much to build up Hitler, found themselves throwing hot metal at their friends, the Germans. No wonder there was a period of phoney war. They just couldn’t get used to the idea that thev were fighting on opposite sides. If Stalin had to war over Poland he would have consummated British nolicy and the British would have slid to the sideline and cheered Hitler on. —Yours, etc., a C. FITZGERALD. July 12. 1956. [No doubt Stalin foresaw that Britain would survive the German attack and then contrive to have Japanese aggression bring the United States into the war. Perfidious Albion!— Ed., “The Press.”]