Greymouth Evening Star. FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1946. Delaying Tactics in Paris

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 August 1946, Page 6

Greymouth Evening Star. FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1946. Delaying Tactics in Paris

to the cable messages published to-day, the view is now being freel.y expressed in British and American! circles that the Soviet delegation to the'; Paris Conference is employing delaying, tactics as part of its general policy to postpone the re-settlement of Western Europe. This is not the first time that such a purpose has been seen as the reason for the Russian attitude towards problems which require full and frank co-operation for their solution, but the Paris message comes as the first authoritative report that such a view of Soviet policy is being openly taken in official circles. Reporting on London reactions follow-

ing the conclusion of the recent Foreign Ministers’ conference in Paris, a special correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald expressed the view that the struggle between East and 'West for the soul of Germany had entered a new phase. Russia’s policy was interpreted as meaning that she is making an even stronger jid to gain German friendship. A change in Soviet policy to the defeated enemy was seen in Mr. Molotov’s statements at the conference. Tie committed the Soviet Government on two important points on which Russian policy had hitherto been

quite vague. The first point was that he came out’ against the French demand for the detachment of the Ruhr from Germany. The second was his declaration that the plan for the level of German industry, in Berlin last March, would be inadequate to meet the demands of Ger-

many’s peace-time economy. Both these

moves, according to the correspondent, came as a surprise to the other Foreign Ministers in Paris, as well as to the leaders of the Communist Parties in Germany and France, whose policies are .directly affected. Russian Bid.

Mr. Molotov’s significant departure from his previously-declared conceptions of a. “harsh peace” indicate clearly, that Soviet policy is now concentrating more strongly than hitherto on winning over the sympathy of large sections of the German people and that this has been given something like top priority in the list of objectives which Russian diplomacy is pursuing. Obviously time is required for the attainment, of this objective, which is the basis of the complaint of the delegations of the other Great Powers now meeting in Paris.

Aware, no doubt,’ that a more moderate line will tell to her credit and advantage with the German people, Prussian policy has moved a long way from its original standpoint. Although there is plcntv of evidence that the German hates the. Russian, there is no doubt that he understands him and the Soviet form of government. The worst scathe of purgatory for the vanquished but unregenerated enemy has yet to come in the shape of reparations, restriction of industry, reduction of the standard of life and degradation of status. A “generous” Soviet policy helped by the activities of numcious propagandists, would, do much to turn the thoughts of desperate and degraded Germans to the form of government which they understand more readily than , democracy—totalitarianism. The Russians may yet be- able to throw the last straw which a helpless people may find it convenient to clutch.