LONDON COMMENT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21964, 7 March 1946, Page 7

LONDON COMMENT

HANDLING RUSSIA CHURCHILL’S CANDOUR NO APPEASEMENT POLICY (11 a.m.) LONDON, March 6. “Mr. Churchill’s purpose clearly was not to divide the world into two opposing camps, but to see whether frankness could not unite the two camps into which tho world is already tending to divide itself,” says the Daily Telegraph in a leader. “In effect, Mr. Churchill says to Russia: ‘We want to play cricket with you, but, in any case, we shall see you cannot play fast and loose with us. At least he will have set many people thinking whether that is or is not the best way of dealing with Russia.” The Times, in a leader, says that British-Russian relations required to be based, as Mr. Churchill said, not on appeasement, but on a settlement, and that settlement must take account both of the effective interests and the effective power of both parties. “As far as Britain is concerned, favourable results will not be achieved by a policy of words unaccompanied by action and, still less, by reliance on American support as a substitute for a balanced and carefully-weighed British policy. . , ~ “Nothing Mr. Churchill said was incompatible with the full recognition of these underlying realities.” The Daily Mail, in a leader, says that Russia’s disastrous course can and must be arrested. Who can doubt that the way to do it is the one proposed by Mr. Churchill, namely, for Britain and the United States to get together in a “fraternal association” and say to rtussia: “Thus far and no farther.” “Must Stick Together” The Manchester Guardian, commenting that Mr. Churchill regrets that Britain and America since the war have not marched consistently in step, argues that the unhappy fact is that the AngloSaxon countries must now stick together “because the liberal civilisation for which they stand is threatened by new forces in some ways as evn 3S Nazism. , ... ~ “There is no apparent limit to the Russian desire to expand its power and doctrine. Every step from Manchuria to Bombay and in Germany and France is evidence enough. Mr. Churchill was surely right when he says that the Russians admire strength above all things. It is for the western democracies that at present the despise to show that strength. The Daily Worker said: “Mr Churchill has returned to his anti-Communist vomit. There spoke the man who organised intervention against the young Soviet Republic. This new attempt to unite world reaction under the banner of anti-Communism will fail as others failed. The new Europe cannot be turned upside down by strident phrases.”