Soviet Plans In Baltic Assessed

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28938, 4 July 1959, Page 13

Soviet Plans In Baltic Assessed

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, July 3. It seemed that Mr Khrushchev, in his summer travels, was using the flanks of Europe to reinforce Russian pressure, which pivoted round Berlin in the centre, says a special correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” discussing the reaction he found jn Scandinavia to Moscow’s idea of a Baltic “sea of peace.”

The aims of Mr Khrushchev's visit recently to Albania and his projected visit next month to' Scandinavia were the same: to weaken 'North Atla ■'tic Treaty Organisation loyalties and links;, to prevent, postpone or reduce Western atomic armament in the area concerned; and to prepare the way for the eventual extension of Soviet influence into the military vacuum thus created, the correspondent said. Mr Khrushchev talked of peace, but meant peaceful penetration His prospects appeared rosier in the extreme north than the ex-’ treme south. In contrast to Albania’s shaky little “Window on the Adriatic, Russia controlled the whole Baltic coastline from Leningrad to the Bay of Luebeck. Denmark and Norway, Scandinavia’s two N.A.T.O. members, had not yet taken the plunge on rocket bases like Greece and Italy, their counterparts of the southern flank.

Finally, northern Europe ottered a broader neutral platform from which Mr Khrushchev might operate. In the Balkans, he had only Jugoslavia,, which was suspect in the West because it was

Communist and in the East because it was heretical. But in the Baltic hb had two highly respected neutrals, Sweden and Finland, the second of which was virtually incapable of pursuing any foreign policy directed against him. The correspondent said ’ ’.r Khrushchev might wel'. be hoping that with skill and luck and patience he could use the two countries to wean Denmark and Norway from their N.A.T.O. sympathies and thus prepare for the sterilisation of the whole Baltic area.

Mr Khrushchev would have no easy task Vith Scandinavia’s neutrals, the correspondent added. They were aware that behind his tglk of a Baltic “Sea of Peace” lay the concept of a Soviet Mare Nostrum. The’Baltic’s channel to the West was narrow, but both Sweden and Finland were determined to keep it open.