To Remain Neutral

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 106, 1 November 1939, Page 11

To Remain Neutral

EFFORT TO STOP THE WAR

Relations With Reich

FRIENDSHIP AND TRADE

Aims in the Baltic

(Daventry Broadcast.)

LONDON, Tuesday Night

The Russian Prime Minister, M. Molotov, in a speech to the Soviet Supreme Council, stated that Russia intended to remain neutral and would try to stop the war. He dealt with Finland and Russia's attempt to make a pact with Turkey. There could be no question of the restora-. tion of Poland, he said. The main points of Russia's foreign policy, he declared, were a free hand in international affairs, a continuance of neutrality, and an effort to stop the war. "We hope that we shall be successful," he said, referring- to the stopping of the war. He said that the war was only in its early stages, and alleged that Britain and France were only pretending to fight. It was really an Imperialistic war. Hi&erism must be accepted or rejected, but not by means of force. Russia's relations with Germany, he said, were based on permanent friendship and the desire to develop trade to their mutual benefit. The pacts with the Baltic States revealed Russia's aspirations for peace, and the suggestion that the Baltic States might be Sovietised was untrue. He denied that Eussia wanted the Aland Islands from Finland; she wanted a pact of.mutual assistance on. the lines of the other Baltic p.acts. He alleged that the repeal of the arms embargo would only prolong the war. A.A 1 . In the course of his reference to Turkey, M. Molotov indicated that Russia did not want-warships to enter the Black Sea in the event of war; Turkey did not agree on that, and had signed a pact with Britain and France instead. Relations between Russia and Japan had greatly improved: He spoke for an hour and a half.