NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23700, 5 July 1940, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS

. SOVIET AND REICH Romarkable changes are in progress in Russia to-day, changes -which may well furnish important evidence as to Russia's attitude as the war progresses, writes Mr. Edmund Stevens, American foreign correspondent. In a recent trip Mr. Stevens says he noticed in Moscow and elsewhere an increased openness and frankness of discussion and criticism. There was also a marked cessation of the purge, which the Russians now currently refer to as the "Yezliovschina," after Yezhoff, former head of the GPU —secret police. Many people previously arrested have been set free and rehabilitated. In spite of the "alliance," Russians continue to regard Nazi Germany as their chief enemy and to exert every effort for the inevitable day of reckoning. If Herr Hitler for the moment appears to have ignored the passages in "Mein Kampf" dealing with the Ukraine, the Russians have not forgotten them and this is said to be the reason for the present vast Soviet troop concentrations on their southern and western borders. CATS AT A PREMIUM The cat-lover will take a just satisfaction in the suggestion now being put about that it is contrary to public policy to destroy any more litters of kittens and that the cat population of Great Britain must be restored to something more like its normal size if the growing damage to foodstuffs by rats and mice is to be abated, says the Manchester Guardian. The shortage is, of course, due to the heavy sacrifico of domestic animals made in the nervous days of last September. It is said that in London 75,000 cats and dogs were then destroyed. Manchester and Salford reported that at the same time 3200 cats had been brought for extermination to the veterinary clinics. The British Government's ruling that no domestic animals would be allowed in air-raid shelters and the feeling that pets might consume a needless portion of scarce foodstuffs account for such figures. The effect is now being felt in an increase in the rat population with which the rat-catchers cannot cope, and in the unprecedented value set in some parts of the country on even the most commonplace of cats. In theso circumstances the cat is well worth its ration for its prevention of far greater inroads on foodstuffs thaii it over makes.

QUESTIONS FOR AMERICA If, betrayed by our American indifference, the Allies are forced to surrender, what then? asks a New Yorker, writing in the Christian Scienco Monitor. Certainly Hitler will seize their navies, their aeroplanes, their tanks, their guns. Certainly, as ho has already done with his Czech and Polish captives, he will assign the men of Franco, and England to toil in factories and on farms to produce slave-made goods for the conquest of world markets, or munitions for tho enslavement of the United States, or both. Certainly Hitler would seize tho British, French, Dutch and Belgian colonies in Africa and Asia without delay, allotting some of his spoils to Jiis fellowgangsters: Italy, Russia, Japan. Then what would the situation be? On 0110 side, four heavily armed predatory Powers dividing up and controlling tho entire world, except the Americas. Oil this side, ono Power alone, immensely rich, potentially strong, practically defenceless. If you were Hitler, if you found yourself with your Allies dominating the entire world except the Americas, if just one hostile Power remained to challenge your supremacy and to be an ever-present menace to your security, and if that single hostile Power had practically no aeroplanes or tanks or guns, but was desperately building them as fast as it could, what would you do about it?. And how long would you wait?,