1812 EXCELLED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1942, Page 5

1812 EXCELLED

RUSSIAN ARMY'S FEAT

MR. EDEN SPEAKS OF HIS VISIT TO MOSCOW

(Rec. 12.45 p.m.) RUGBY. Jan. 8.

The Foreign Secretary, Mr. Eden, in a speech in the House of Commons, referred to his visit, to Moscow. "Stalin is a man with a clear and decisive grasp of any subject he deals with," he said. "I wbuld like to pay a tribute to our interpreter, M. Maisky."

The military contacts made in Moscow by General Nye should bear good fruit in due course, said Mr. Eden. He added that he met Marshal Timoshenko which he came back from his brilliant successes in the Donets Basin, and also Marshal Voroshilov, as well as other military, naval, and air force leaders. General Nye had talks with the Chief of the General Staff of the Red army.

Supplies to Russia were arriving satisfactorily. Everywhere he had found a steady note of confidence and resolution. "I think it is true that there is no other example in history of an army that has carried out so long and arduous a retreat in summer months and yet maintained its morale so well that it has been able to turn on the enemy with triumphant success over a wide front. It is afar greater achievement than that of 1812. The Russian soldier has power of endurance and adaptability which the German invader can never hope to equal." '

There were three outstanding factors which had contributed to the Russian successes. The first was the fact that throughout the summer months the Russians fought a fighting retreat, taking toll of the enemy at every opportunity. The second factor was the scorched-earth policy, and the third was the effective and widespread operations of guerrillas. All this did not mean that the German army was riot still strong.

While he was in Moscow, said Mr. Eden, he conferred with the British Ambassadors at Ankara and Teheran. In due course the Ambassador at Ankara would report to the Turkish Government on the result of his visit. References to Turkey which were made in the Moscow conversations were in all respects friendly, and were such that the Turkish.Government would have been glad to hear, namely, that they had nothing to fear from an Allied victory and that the British and Soviet pledges to Turkey would be honoured.

In concluding, Mr. Eden said: "I regard these conversations as being of the highest importance for the future. They constitute only a beginning, and we have to follow up the beginning which we made at Moscow."—B.O.W.