DEFENCE

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28179, 18 January 1957, Page 9

DEFENCE

Sir, —I am too busy to read books by traitors. If the Soviets have spies, they apparently need them. We British do things much better. When we grabbed £250.000,000 worth of German foreign trade we had a war which cost millions. When the Russians had a revolution to overthrow a rotten regime we intervened and got kicked out of Russia fcr our pains. Th s was just a waste of lives and money. Mr Khrushchev’s current humour reveals that the Russians have more confidence in themselves than people like Mr Stevens. — Yours, etc., RALPH S. WHEELER. Timaru, January 15, 1957. Sir, —Replying to F. W. Stevens, the foreign policy of Russia does not derive from office boys who betray their country for £5OOO. Trotsky, leader of the “world revolutionists.” was exiled in 1927. Russia accepted the KelloggBriand pact to outlaw war in 1928. They joined the League of Nations in 1934 and supported all attempts at disarmament. The willingness of the Soviet Union, like other Powers, to make concessions to fashion a durable international! peace organisation was demon-' strated at the San Francisco Conference. In Stalin’s words. “We have no idea of imposing our re-

gime on other peoples—our aim is to help liberate them from Nazi tyranny and then to leave them free to live their own lives as they wish.” Today, in every country, the people are in the mood to tear the heart out of any government which makes war.— Yours, etc.,

JOHN BURBRIDGE. January 16, 1957.

Sir, —I do not think you are quite fair to John Burbridge. You ask him to substantiate his statements regarding Southern Korea, but you allow F. W. Stevens to write, "Had the Petrovs gone back to Russia they would have been liquidated like Beria and thousands of others who knew too much.” No ambiguity about that!

It would be helpful if F. W. Stevens would substantiate his claim.— Yours, etc., B. FAIR. January 16, 1957.

There was considerable delay to early trains on the Lyttelton line yesterday morning through the discovery shortly after 6 a.m. of a broken rail in the tunnel. Three trains were cancelled and the steamer-express train did not arrive at Christchurch until after 8 o’clock. To enable the broken rail to be replaced, rail traffic was stopped for two hours later in the morning. Buses were used to transport passengers. The break is the second in the tunnel within a month. Trains were delayed for two hours on December 23.