Greymouth Evening Star. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1949. Soviet Expansion

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 September 1949, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1949. Soviet Expansion

’THE . present Balkan crisis, involving ■ ’ Russia and her satellites, on the. one hand, and Jugoslavia, on the other; is in reality a sequel to the events of 1939 when Molotov and von Ribbentrop signed the Nazi-Soviet Paet and the secret, protocol attached to it. In this pact the policy, of a revived Russian imperialist expansion was first explicitly laid down since the Communists seized power in Moscow. For this reason the most important factor, in international politics today is that Mr Stalin’s policy of 1949 —‘though it may vary tactically from year to year and even from day to day—is Mr Stalin’s policy ol 1939. " • ‘ , "When the Nazi-Soviet pact was signed in the Kremlin on August 23, .1939, Mr Molotov acclaimed it as a turning pointin the history of Europe. And so in a sense it was, for it marked the Russian re-entry into Europe as an aggressive and expansionist Power. The Soviet Union was again. seeking, as the C zars had sought, to extend its territories and to exert control over her neighbouring countries. Soviet Russia had been for 20 years a peaceful neighbour for the other States of East Europe and the Middle East. Now Mr Stalin, seeing, as he thought, a. golden opportunity,, went back to the Czarist line. The secret protocol of August. 23, 1939, dealt with ihe “question of Hie boundary of the respective German and Soviet spheres of influence in eastern Europe,. Russia, claimed Finland and the Baltic States and Eastern Poland. And Germany, in addition, declared its “complete political disinterestedness” in south-east-ern Europe. So the European frontiers of the Soviet empire were staked out. . Within a few months the Soviet Union had annexed Eastern Poland, the Baltic States, and Bessarabia. Finland had been attacked and forced to cede a slice of territory. The two allies were fated to quarrel over the B'alkans —for Hitler had no intention of keeping faith with Moscow But before the break came they planned a new partition and a new Russian advance This time it was to be to the southward. Russia was to secure bases “within range of the Bosphorus and rhe Dardanelles” and “her aspirations in the direction of the Indian Ocean and ihe Persian Gulf” were to be “recognised by Germany, Italy, and Japan. ' All. this came to nothing. But its importance is that it remains as a sort of blueprint of Mr Stalin’s territorial aspirations.” He has never changed the policy laid down in the protocol of August °3 1939. and in his subsequent negotiations with Hiller. At and since the end of the war Russia has extended her territory in Europe at the expense of every single one of her neighbours. She has reduced those neighbours, with the exception of Finland and Jugoslavia, to the status of obedient and subservient vassals —and she menaces Finland and Jugoslavia. That is the European scene. The same aggressive design can be seen unfolding in the Middle East and the Far East. ”