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THE BALTIC STATES

RUSSIAN ANNEXATION

IF THEY AID HER ENEMIES

CONGRESS WARNING

Violent attacks on Fascist Powers were delivered at the Soviet Congress in Moscow, says the "Daily Telegraph" of November 30. M. Zdanov, a Communist Party chief, threatened that Hussia would reannex the Baltic States—Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania—if they, allowed "big adventurers to use their territories for big adventures." General Khripin declared that the Red Air Force had doubled its strength in the past ten months, possessed the best aero-engine in the world, and would eventually have at least 100,000 airmen. "We can now land an entire battalion of parachutists behind the enemy's lines within ten minutes" he asserted. "If the Fascist Powers attack us we shall hurl every possible kind of weapon upon them." In a speech to peasants General Goering, the German Air Minister, said: "If our leader calls you will take up the sword as you now take up the plough." General Khripin, Vice-Chief of the entire Red Air Force, created a sensation at a session of the All-Union Congress of Soviets by giving what he declared were the "precise numbers" of all types of aeroplanes in the air forces of Britain, France, . Germany, Italy, and Japan. He gave no definite figures of Soviet war 'planes, but raised the enthusiasm of the Assembly to fever point by dramatically exclaiming: "In the first ten months of this year alone we have increased the number of our aeroplanes by 95 per cent, and the number of our aero engines by 146 per cent. "In the last four years," he went on, "the Red Air Force, taking the average of all branches, has increased by 334 per cent. 100,000 AIRMEN. "Russia," he declared, "must and will have at least 100,000 airmen—by no means a fantastic figure. Germany already has 117,000." By "airmen" General Khripin apparently meant the entire flying personnel, including pilots, observers, flying mechanics, and wireless operators. : In 1936 alone, he continued, the "voluntary civilian" League for Aviation and Chemical Defence had trained 8000 pilots. "We can now land an entire battalion of parachutists behind the j enemy's lines within ten minutes. "Woe, woe to the Fascist nations," General Khripin cried. "If they attack us we shall hurl every*, possible kind of weapon upon them." Emphasising Russia's new selfconfidence, General Khripin claimed, amid a fresh surge of cheering: "The Red aero engine No. M 34 is far and away the best in the world, leaving all foreigners behind." The M 34 is, in fact, the first really high-class aero engine designed by Russian engineers. It is a heavy type for big 'planes, such ■as bombers. Later Zdanov, successor to the murdered Kirov as party "boss" for Leningrad and all North-West Russia, uttered the most menacing words hearJ at the present Congress. He threatened the Baltic States with reannexation to Russia if they failed to "mind their own business." A WIDER WINDOW. Recalling a famous phrase of Peter the Great, he exclaimed: "We wish to live in peace with the Baltic countries, but if these tiny people allow big adventurers to use their territories for big adventures, we shall widen our little window on to Europe, with the help of the Red Army." The four Baltic States, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, established their independence of Russian rule after the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. At a night session M. Molotov, the Soviet Premier, vigorously attacked Herr Hitler and "the leaders of the National Socialist Party. There were two forces in the world today, he said —Communism standing for peace and Fascism standing for war. "The Fascists," he said, "are solving their national problems by persecuting Jewry. Stalin said, in 1931: 'Anti-| Semitism is the first stage on the road to cannibalism—a dangerous road for workers to take.' These Fascists hava rightly won the name of modern cannibals. "We do not want any Jewish exploiters here, but we open the way to the highest posts in the State, in literature and in science, to genuine Jewish workers. Our admiration for the Jewish race is enhanced by the fact that it gave birth to Karl Marx, the founder of Socialist doctrines, and to many other great fighters for Socialism. "The new Soviet Constitution," M. Molotov continued, "lights our way towards Communism, while immediately vastly improving the machinery of the State. COMMUNISTS SUPREME. "Although we are borrowing all the best features of bourgeois democracy, we do not intend to permit any other party except the Communist to sur- ! vive here, because all others would work to restore Capitalism." |M. Molotov then, at great length, contrasted the personal, absolute rule icf Herr Hitler with what he claimed was "free debate" in- the Soviet Union and in the present Congress. "What a contrast this makes with the Nuremberg Congress," he decided. Seeking once again to justify the Bolshevik political monopoly in Russia, he declared: "The enemies of the Communist Party are all enemies of Socialism and of the workers and the peasants. Their front ranks are led by the Trotsky-Zinovievites, supported"—he added significantly—"by certain Right-Wing Bolsheviks. We must sweep them from our path and go ahead, unhampered, to Communism." '■ For an hour and a half M. Litvinov. the Commissar for Foreign Affairs, read a typically trenchant speech fo the Congress. He did liot, however, j give the slightest indication of the j future foreign policy of the Soviet Union. ' Above all, he studiously avoided mentioning Russia's relations with France. This was an omission which disappointed many Frenchmen, who had hoped that he would answer an assertion made by M. Barthelemy, the French legal expert. M. Barthelemy stated that Article 49 of the new Constitution prevented the Soviet Government fulfilling its obligations under the mutual assistance pact unless Russia were herself attacked. ANTI-BOLSHEVIK PACTS. The most important parts of his speech were directed against Germany and Japan, and, to a lesser extent,, Italy, for their new anti-Bolshevik' pacts. In accordance with the "general line" given to the Congress, Litvinov struck the high nationalistic note with : all his might, winning a big cheer for himself atid Stalin—who was not present —by declaring, in his peroration:— : "The day is coming when the Red

Army and Navy will have to defend our Fatherland. I am certain that our Soviet Union will stand as strong as a fortress and will drive back the filthy waves of the Fascist sea.

"My confidence is all. the greater because the commandant of this fortress is Stalin the Great himself."

Speaking as "a man who sits in a window opening on to the outside world," he echoed all that Stalin had said against democracy outside Russia.

There was no hope for it, he asserted, owing to economic conflicts and because, when malcontents could not be crushed otherwise, "one part of the population is outlawed and given over to the other part to loot.

"That, comrades," he declared, "is Fascism. Such is the fate awaiting democracy in other countries,- and that is why we do not feel flattered when we are informed that we are really returning to the fold of the European democratic Powers.

"We have taken the banner of freedom from-the hands of collapsing European democracy, and are filling it with our new Soviet breath."

Nevertheless, M. Litvinov once again asserted that Russia was not interested in Fascism' inside individual foreign countries.

When Bolsheviks went to Geneva it was to co-operate with opposing political and economic systems.

"Mussolini, himself," Litvinov continued, "once declared: 'Fascism in Italy is for Italy alone.' But that was before he went to a finishing school in Berlin."

Referring to the thirty Germans imprisoned in Moscow, Leningrad, and Kharkov, accused of belonging to an espionage and Fascist organisation. Litvinov declared: "The Soviet Government knows how to liquidate such activities. They present no danger to Russia, only to other countries, in nearly all of which the Nazis began active work as soon as they came into power. They are most dangerous in such lands as Spain."

Declaring that General Franco would not have had a chance without German and Italian aid, the Commissar, his shrewd eyes twinkling through his big spectacles, declared: "German Fascism, the self-created protector of Aryans, does not seem to have an uneasy conscience over leading Moors against the Aryan Spanish people."

While the Soviet Union. Britain, and France had loyally kept their pledges under the non-intervention agreement, he asserted, Germany snd Italy, with the assistance of Portugal; had continued to send supplies to the insurgents.

- "We complained, but judging by the result the Non-interference Committee evidently does not want to interfere with the non-interference of nations in Spanish affairs. The Soviet Government therefore announced that it no longer considered itself bound by the pact to any greater extent than the other signatories." Nevertheless, Litvinov studiously avoided'the vexed question of whether or not Russian arms had been extensively used in Spain. Instead, he declared: "Tons of bombs are now being thrown on Madrid, killing thousands and destroying -buildings and monuments of art.

"These bombs are thrown by German and Italian pilots from German and Italian aeroplanes—a fact which will for ever leave a shameful stain on the history of Fascism and the Fascist countries."

He then won a big ovation for the Spanish Ambassador, who was sitting in the front row of the prominent diplomatic box, by exclaiming: "We are filled with admiration for the heroic resistance of the Spanish people against the forces of barbarism and vandalism."

He dismissed (he charge that Moscow wanted to establish a Communist Republic in Spain federated with the Soviet Union as "a fairy tale, good only for small children and big fools." Turning directly to the present Soviet-German feud, M. Litvinov recalled that when the Nazis first came into power he had received assurances that their relations with the Soviet Union would remain on the friendliest basis.

"But," he added, "the friendly feelings of the German Fascists soon died when we offered mutually to guarantee the security of our neighbours—the Baltic States—and again when we signed a pact of mutual assistance with France."

He went on to accuse Italy "on reliable information in my possession," of having ■ already made an offer .to Japan to sign an agreement analogous to that recently -revealed between Japan and Germany. "Taking full responsibility for my words," he asserted, "this GermanJapanese agreement in Berlin is merely a cloak for another—i.e., militaryagreement signed simultaneously but never published." This second agreement, M. Litvinov declared, had taken eighteen months to negotiate. Its aggressive nature was indicated by the fact that it had been signed by States which had already abandoned the Leagua and were both famous for their aggressiveness.

"Germany," he continued, "used to claim that she was opposed to all blocs except with her next-door neighbours. Yet here we have her signing a pact with a State thousands of miles away."

M. Litvinov raised a howl of derision by declaring: "The authors of such anti-Bolshevik pacts make abject asses of themselves by thus confessing, after years of dictatorship, that they still fear being overrun by Bolshevism."

At the same time the Commissar avoided giving his personal opinion en that "danger," merely remarking: "They really do seem to have been seized with panic."

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19361226.2.12

Bibliographic details

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 153, 26 December 1936, Page 3

Word Count
1,867

THE BALTIC STATES Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 153, 26 December 1936, Page 3

THE BALTIC STATES Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 153, 26 December 1936, Page 3

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