SOVIET REPLY

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 285, 29 August 1935, Page 9

SOVIET REPLY

Four Nations’ Protests Rejected

COMMUNIST WORK No Obligation Regarding Comintern Activities Bv Telegraph.—Prc-ss Assn.— Copyright. .Moscow, August 27. The Soviet has rejected protests by England, America, Italy, and Latvia against the propagandist activities of the recent Comintern World Congress, and definitely denies America’s assertion that these violated JI. Litvinoff’s pledges to President Roosevelt in 1933. The rejection adds that the Soviet Government could not and never had assumed any obligations regarding the Comintern’s activities abroad. The “News-Chronicle’s” Moscow correspondent says: “The first result of the rejection is a reduction of the American Embassy staff at Moscow.” The “Daily Telegraph’s” Moscow correspondent reported on August 2 .that the Communist International Congress had passed a resolution ordering new tactics for agitation abroad by the elimination of the Bolshevik sectarian tradition and by entering into an alliance with the Second International with which the British Labour Party is affiliated, in order to ensure a united front against war, Fascism, and capital. The resolution pointed out that the Comintern’s revolutionary influence would increase and ordered a radical change in propaganda for the purpose if securing workers’ sympathies by an agitation on local affairs, systematically creating and educating staffs of leaders and enabling young members of the Communist League to work inside athletic, educational, social, religious, Fascist, trade unionist, and capitalist bodies throughout the world.

RELATIONS’ DAMAGED United States Opinion REPLY CAUSES SURPRISE (Received August 28, 5.5 p.m.) Washington, August 27. In the opinion of observers here relations between the United States and Russia were damaged considerably today by receipt of a Note which disclaimed all responsibility on the part of the Soviet for acts of the Communist International, against which the American Government had protested. Russia’s was almost an unprecedented step, and the “declining” of the United States protest, came as a shock, due to the courtesy which has marked America’s . previous contacts with the Soviet.

It. is emphasised in privately-inform-ed quarters that there is no present intention of breaking off diplomatic relations with Russia, but if. is believed Mutt the Note will have the effect oi stiffening America’s attitude in its future dealings witli the Soviet.

Coincident with the receipt of the Note, the State Department gave orders for a reduction of its diplomatic establishment, at. Moscow, but this action was said ,to have been planned in advance of to-day’s developments. The general impression prevailed that probably the Soviet Note indirectly expressed a certain pique as the result of the breakdown of plans by which a renewal of trade between Russia and the United States was to have been financed in the United States. (Note on Pago 7.)