In For A Penny, In For A Pound

Northern Advocate, 2 June 1939, Page 4

In For A Penny, In For A Pound

RUSSIA has rejected British and French overtures because their guarantees are not comprehensive enough, but if Russian support is deemed absolutely vital to Mr Chamberlain’s so called policy of encirclement, designed to check aggressiveness by the Axis Powers, then it should be possible to give the necessary assurances without incurring greater risks of responsibilities than have already been accepted. Britain so far has guaranteed the integrity of Poland, Rumania and Greece. Greece does not immediately concern the Soviet, but Rumania and Poland do. Having overrun those countries, as they did in the Great War, the German armies would be at the frontiers of Russia. But Russia is not concerned with those countries alone. Extending in a fringe along the Baltic are Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, all small and practically as defenceless as Albania. Through these States Russia is as vulnerable as she is through Poland and Rumania. It is hardly surprising that she would wish their integrity, too, to be gu&rantGGd. Actually, Britain and France can hardly be more deeply committed, if they provide that guarantee, than they are now. Germany could only attack Lithuania through East Prussia, and to operate on any large scale she would have to violate the Polish Corridor, thus bringing in Poland automatically, and Britain and France as well. Similarly, it is impossible to conceive that operations against Latvia and Estonia could not immediately cause a general Baltic disturbance, into which France and Britain would be plunged by their existing commitments. Thus the possibility of concessions to Russian viewpoint can hardly be ruled out.