THROUGH SOVIET EYES

Evening Star, Issue 25672, 21 December 1945, Page 5

THROUGH SOVIET EYES

OUTSTANDING INTERNATIONAL QUESTIONS CONTINUED ADHERENCE TO MARXIST JENETS (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.) (Rec. 10 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 20. The Soviet point of view on international questions has been stated unambiguously in recent political publications, says ‘ The Times ’ Moscow correspondent. The method of approach and the arguments advanced indicate continued adherence to the fundamental tenets of Marxism, coupled with a firm belief in the capacity of the Big Three to work as a united team for the cause of world peace, and, by raising the standard of living of all peoples, for tho welfare of mankind. To the Soviet mind vital decisions in world affairs should in the last analysis b« taken by those who possess the power and resources essential to bearing the responsibility for the maintenance of peace and the establishment of world order. Where the Soviet Union feels. that she is being excluded from positions where to her it seems right that she should shoulder her share of this responsibility, as in control of Japan or trusteeship of colonial lands, she will press for equality, with her partners. Where her position is assured, as in territory liberated by the efforts of the Red army, she will seek to use her influence to support the majority of the people against the direct adherents of Fascism. MINORITIES. If the question is narrowed, as it has been by recent commentators, to South-eastern Europe, the Soviet mind rejects the view that protection of the rights of minorities is the true test of democracy. . " What minorities can one have in mind as regards countries which have just been liberated and not yet purged of Fascist agents? ” a writer asked in ‘ Izvestia ’ recently. ” Should democracy concern itself with the rights of supporters of Fascism? Is not the unity of the overwhelming majority of people the most solid support for democracy? What is the minority which should be the object of attention, say in Rumania? ” TRUSTEESHIP.

The trusteeship issue has been brought up sharply in two recent articles in authoritative journals, and it has merged into the general question of the future of the colonial peoples, without a solution, of which the Soviet view is that a firm and just peace system is unobtainable. Much harsh criticism has been directed against the present status of the peoples of India and Africa, including the Sudan, which is described as under total British domination, and Indonesia. No matter what form colonial domination assumes—-economic domination, for which certain powerful elements in the United States are deemed to be striving, or political domination that is associated with London’s policy —it always leads to the retarding of productive forces, economic enslavement, and deprivation of political rights, a state of affairs the Russians also see in the mandated territories of the Near East.

But, the Soviet argument continues, the upsurge of national liberation movements bears evidence that the colonial regime is

fraught with danger to world peace, and because the Soviet Union is vitally interested in maintaining that peace, and also because she feels she could be an enlightening influence, the view is being expressed with increasing emphasis here that she would participate in the trusteeship system, "a step towards the achievement of complete independence,” as an article in ‘ Bolshevik ’ puts it. MOSCOW PRESS.

The foreign news pages of the Moscow Press, by devoting much space to events in Persian Azerbaijan, the Nuremberg trial, and. any attempts by Fascism to re-establiish itself—including even Sir Oswald Mosley’s recent activities—indicate that happenings in lands adjacent to the Soviet Union and what M. Molotov has defined as the moral and political defeat of the enemy, are still considered as matters of paramount interest.