London Startled By Change

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30575, 19 October 1964, Page 13

London Startled By Change

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, October 18. “The Times” today described the replacement of Mr Khrushchev as “startling.”

“The Times” said in an editorial: “The news that Mr Khrushchev has gone is startling in its timing because the rumours on the question of his resignation had been silent for several months, and he had not shown sogns of illhealth in recent weeks. “The news is startling in another and much more substantial way. He was retired completely—both from being first secretary of the party and from being Prime Minister. . . .

“His pursuit of relaxation between the two great camps was his greatest—and most substantial —work. “Incurred Enmity”

“Both for internal and international reasons he incurred the enmity of the Chinese and it has yet to be seen how far the resultant split hastened his resignation. “So far as is known, the new men, Mr Brezhnev as party leader and Mr Alexei Kosygin as Prime Minister will carry on with the main lines of his policy. . . .

“The Times” concluded: “No great change in policy need ... be expected, and one result may be that the rift with China will be slightly easier to resolve now that the Peking bete noir is gone.” Under the title “Pillar

Crumbles in Moscow,” the Liberal “Guardian” gave the Russian happenings precedence in its editorial columns over the British election. It said that Mr Khrushchev was “one of the two pillars on which the peace of the world has rested for a decade.”

“The Moscow explanation that he asked to resign because of age and ill-health is not likely to be the story. “But the first reaction is one of shock that a familiar figure should disappear from a place of importance in the lives of us all to be superseded by a main or men of whose out l ook and ideas we yet know next to nothing.”

Leadership Unknown After referring to the outcome of the British election and to the forthcoming United States Presidential election where “President Johnson’s enormous lead is suddenly put in jeopardy by the moral lapses of an adviser and friend,” the “Guardian” added: “Within a few hours the future leadership was unknown in three of the world’s major capitals. “The new Prime Minister and the new President will both have to start their relationship with the Soviet Union with virtually nothing taken for granted. “It may be a long time before the stability in international affairs to which we have grown used in the past few years can again be relied upon.”