Soviet Viewpoint On International Questions

Northern Advocate, 21 December 1945, Page 5

Soviet Viewpoint On International Questions

(Spec.)

The Soviet point of view on international questions has been stated unambiguously in recent political publications, says the “Moscow correspondent of “The Times.” 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 the welfare of mankind.

To the Soviet mind the vital decisions in world affairs should, in the last analysis, be taken by those who possess the power and resources essential to bearing the responsibility for 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 she should shoulder her share of this responsibility, as in the control of Japan or trusteeship of colonial lands, she will press for equality with her partners. VIEWS ON MINORITIES 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 a majority of the people against direct adherents of Fascism.

If the question is narrowed, as it has been by recent commentators, to South-Eeastern Europe, the Soviet mind rejects the view that protection of the rights of minorities is a true test of Democracy. “What minorities can one have in mind-as regards countries which have just been liberated and not yet purged from Fascist agents?” a writer asked in “Izvestia? -recently. ■ “Should Democracy concern itself with the rights of supporters of Fascism?

“Is not the unity of an overwhelming majority of the people the most solid support for Democracy? “What is the minority which should be the object of attention, say, in Rumania?”

LONDON, Dec. 18

The trusteeship issue has been brought up sharply in two recent articles in authoritative journals, and it has merged into a general question of the future of colonial peoples, without a solution of which the Soviet view is that a firm and just peace system is unattainable.

Much harsh criticism has been directed against the present status of the peoples of India, 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 America 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 the deprivation of political rights, a state of affairs that the Russians also see in mandated territories of the Near East. DANGER TO WORLD PEACE 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” put it

The foreign news pages of the Moscow Press, by devoting much space to events in Persian Azerbaijan, the Nuremberg trial, and any attempts of Fascism to re-establish 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