The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1939. SOVIET-GERMAN PACT.

Evening Star, Issue 23352, 23 August 1939, Page 10

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1939. SOVIET-GERMAN PACT.

It is too soon to measure the exact significance of the Soviet-German nonaggression pact. It may ho a blow to British and a triumph for German diplomacy.- How far it will prove an evil is yet to be seen. The pact, which has been agreed to, but not actually signed, appears to mean that Germany ban do what she likes in Poland without risk of provoking that war on two fronts, involved in the Soviet’s alignment with the democracies, which naturally would bo her greatest fear. Russia will not attack’her, and she will not attack Russia. Germany will therefore have received the greatest encouragement to go ahead with courses which the remaining countries, of Europe could not tolerate without the danger of being subdued by the ambitious forces of Nazism one by one. But tho pact, which might bo expected to end Franco-British discussions with Russia, is not to have that effect. Those negotiations, for the present at least, are being continued, when it would seem as if an almost contemptuous rejection had been given to them. And it is not absolutely certain, at the moment of writing, that the pact means so much as wo have assumed. Almost everything may depend on the precise significance of a clause referred to in the Italian accounts of.it, “ that in the event of either [party] committing an act of aggression the other may denounce the agreement.”

However far it extends or does not extend, the pact makes a strange development. There were great obstacles, from the beginning, to the agreement which Franco and Britain desired to make with Russia. The discussions, which have lasted for three months, were begun too late for the Soviet’s pride. Their beginning was delayed because the British Government, if it had been possible, would have preferred to have no need for them. It would have been hapjtier in reaching an agreement with Germany for the prevention of Nazi aggression than in making an alliance with Russia which could only be expected) to exasperate the Nazi rulers to the last point and fill every German, at their suggestion, with the fear of encirclement, which would bo the end of friendliness. Communism, above everything else, had been the Nazis’ “ bete noir.” They rose to power by making a bugbear of it. The anti-

Comintern pact, of which Japan is a member, was formed ostensibly to oppose it, and for no other purpose. Before that, tho Franco-Soviet treaty of mutual assistance, which did not threaten Germany unless Germany began tho attack, was inveighed against by Nazis as tho last outrage and made the excuse for refortification of the Rhineland, as well as for abstention from any kind of European discussions or agreements in which Russia should have part, it is made clear now that the Berlin Government was no more sincere in its hostility to Communism than in its cry of self-determination for Gormans (and only Germans) violated by tho dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. “ Each country ” —Germany and the Soviet—says von Ilibbentrop “ will maintain its political philosophy,” but they have agreed to “ adjust their political relations.” Apart from aggression the political philosophies, with their exaltation of the State at the individual’s expense—likewise thoir methods, come to very much tho same thing. One begat tho other.

There were natural difficulties—explained at the time by Mr Chamberlain —for tho democratic nations’ talks with Russia when they did begin. The Soviet wanted to include the Baltic, States, which had very good reasons for preferring not to be included. The British Government made later proposals which did not please the Soviet. There was tho obstacle, which must have been foreseen from the first by all those whoso elation at the prospect of any sort of alliance with Russia did not blind them to every other consideration, which was set forth some months ago in tho following words by a leading publicist: “As for Russia, whatever pacts arc made an element of doubt about her will persist to tho last minute, not because of anything she has herself done or left undone, but because no one can satisfy his own intelligence why she should fight on one side rather than tho other, or why, for that matter, she should fight at all. She is almost certainly the only great nation with a perfectly good chance of keeping out. Her statesmen would have to ho incredibly incompetent if, at the outbreak of war, they did not know how to obtain satisfactory guarantees for the inviolability of her territories in the east as well as tho west in exchange for their undertaking to remain neutral; and she is the one obvious party to benefit by a world war in which she kept her neutrality (and therefore her strength) while the belligerents exhausted their resources, since such a war could not fail to make for quick growth of Communism in countries which have successfully resisted all Communist propaganda so far.”

It was dumbfounding, ■ nevertheless, to learn that while the Eranco-British delegates were discussing in Moscow an agreement with the Soviet the Russian rulers, all unknown to them, had brought another with the Germans to a bead. .’lt seems still more strange that, in those circumstances, Soviet officers should have taken part in military talks in Moscow with the democratic Powers. Moscow insists, however, that there is nothing incompatible between the pact with Germany and a British, French, and Russian defensive alliance. It claims that the pact is a peace move, and tho tendency seems to have grown in other countries to regard it in that light. But whero does Japan come in? The anti-Comiteru Pact, to fight Communism, presumably no longer exists, and that was her sole link with the Fascist Powers. She was not a member of the Axis, and seems less likely to be in tho new conditions. According to some readings, the new agreement will leave Russia free to throw more of her weight against Japan in tho East, which would be all to Great Britain’s advantage for the purposes alike of Eastern and Western diplomacy. Where, also, does Italy stand? The pact, it is believed, was a surprise to her as much as to the rest of tho world. II Dude’s absurd claims on France may or may not be supported by it. The British Government has reiterated that it stands by its pledges to Poland, whatever happens, and the world waits for clarification of this mysterious pact. It may promise good or evil. “In quietness and in confidence be your strength ” will bo the best motto for all British people.