LOSES POST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23338, 5 May 1939, Page 9

LOSES POST

SOVIET MINISTER litvinoff resigns peace front policy POSSIBLY UNPOPULAR £y Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received May 4, 7.10 p.m.) LONDON. May 4 It is officially stated from Moscow that the President of the Soviet of People's Commissars, M. Via-cheslaV'-Michaelovitch Molotoff, will succeed M. Maxim Litvinoff as Commissar for Foreign Affairs. M. Litvinoff has resigned.

M. Molotoff will, at least tcmpoi grily, combine the Premiership wit the*portfolio of Foreign Affairs. Ai official news agency announced that M Litvinoff had been released from hi duties at his own request. The Warsaw correspondent of th Times' says the view is expressed tha M. Litvinoff went too far in the "peac front"' policy to suit his more extrem colleagues of the Political Bureau. M; Litvinoff's resignation puzzle London and Paris, as, although hi enemies had frequently circulate* rumours that he was likely to be' dis graced, these had recently died down His resignation in the middle of deli cate negotiations has caused 6om< Eismay. - In Paris opinion is divided, som< quarters, maintaining that M. Stalin i; reluctant /to co-operate with the .Western Powers and desires to with draw from Europe and shelter in hi own immense country. A rapproache rnent between Russia and Germany ii these circumstances cannot bo rulet out, especially as the Nazi attacks oi Russia ceased some time ago. Othe; political circles believe the Soviet higl command favoured a more speedy agree ment with the Western Powers. The Jterlin Lokalanzeiger says: "Ai the result of 71. Litvinoff's retiremen the wires between London and Moscov are, so busy one can almost hear the hard-boiled partners, Britain and Russia, trying to box each other's ears."' . LONDON STARTLED DIPLOMATS PUZZLED GRAVE VIEW IN PARIS NEW,,MINISTER'S POLICY •Independent Cable 'Service (Received May 4, 9.10 p.m.) LONDON, May 4 M. Litvinoff's resignation came as a bombshell to diplomatic quarters in London. Nobody last night' professed ability to interpret it, although it was suggested it may mean a speeding-up of negotiations with Britain. Official circles' in Paris, on the other hand, view the change seriously on the grounds that M. Molotoff does not favour a strong alliance with tlie western democracies,, which M. Litvinoff advocated. The Central Committee of the Com/inunist Party elected a new Political Bureau on March 23 last, as follows: — MIL Stalin, Zhdanoff, Kaganovitcli KCommissar' for Land Transport), _ Andreyeff, Kalinin (president of the ■Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Bepublic), Mikovan (Commissar for Food Industry), Molotoff, Khrushcheff, and Marshal Vorosliiloff (Commissar for Defence). Substitute menibers are M. Laurentius Beria, head of the O.G.P.U. and Shvernik. MM. Stalin, Kaganovitch, Kalinin and Zhdanoff are members of the Soviet Central Executive. —" Molotoff, who has never Been outside Russia, has been President of Soviet of People's Commissars since JJ3O. Before the Great War he was a journalist, but his work as an agitator among the proletariat of St. Petersburg earned him imprisonment and exile._ On the outbreak of the revolution ln 191-7 ] lO ac ted as. organiser of underground'' groups of workers and W n Cn e^cte d to the Bevolutionary »ar Committee. Since then, lie has lrf! s teadily in the councils of the olsheviks, and as long ago as 1021 e became'thp right-hand man of Stalin. Ar S - v ? ars age. 31. Litvinoff is a Jew whose real name is Meyer Wallaeh. He was born • n -'us.sia.in 187G, banished to Siberia j n J"01, escaped to Paris, and came Mo touch with Lenin. After living io °n under various aliases, he rerned and. lived in Leningrad on a "man passport under the name of tave . Graf. In 1906 he was coniff 1 ?'. x a train robbery near Tiflis, i er w hieh his band murdered a miliaj , con , v ' () . v - In consequence Litvinoff W i l aris > where he was arrested, inn- i %.°l ar ed his action had been p • Political. Ho was expelled from ail( l went to London, where he fa'mn a niece S' r Sidney Low, tlie oiw author, and as "Mr. Harrison," traio?i 0! V c t ißles as "Mr. Finkelstein," ionrn ]• x- r Russian firms, did some tn n " a, 'stic w Mvork. and was for a time th f , , clu tectural draughtsman. During Gpm? ar Was charged with being a —' igjo a } l spy in London. In January, sent'*- was "PPointed official repreLo' n ? IVe tl'e Soviet Government in as ni - - e was committed to prison jt hostage for the British agent, B. arres/T- 0 v, a rt. who had been exchanged" r ' 3 T wero ater CZE CH POLITICAL PARTY (Received May 4, 5.5 p.m.) n PRAGUE. May 4 ioin i ? Se 08.4 per cent have n olv e * e National Unity Party, which • 000 S a 1110U1^ exceeding