STRAINED RELATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25157, 21 March 1945, Page 5

STRAINED RELATIONS

TURKEY AND RUSSIA CRITICISM BY SOVIET PRESS LONDON, March 17 ! Relations between Turkey and Russia : continue to be unsatisfactory, says the ■ Ankara correspondent of The Times. Evidence of this, adds the correspon- , dent, is the persistent unfriendly critiI cism in Russian broadcasts and the press . of Turkish policy during the war and personal attacks on Turkish politicians . and publicist's, who are atmused of Fascist leanings, and of the more or less veiled defamation of the present Turk- : ish regime, which is represented as undemocratic. The Russian attitude is stated in Ankara to be due to the Anglo-Turkish alliance and the Turkish Government's stand against any political agitation within the country. The great majority of Turks are convinced that the Soviet, being averse to the exertion of influence by any other Power over country adjacent to Russian territory, objects to the ties of alliance binding Turkey and Great Britain. Moreover, it is pointed out that the Soviet has clearly stated that it desires to see "friendly" Governments established in all neighbouring States, the term "friendly" being interpreted in Russia as meaning a Government which is largely, if not exclusively, Communist. ENEMY OPINION TESTED RESPONSIBILITY FOR WAR CIVILIANS BLAME THE NAZIS SIDNEY, March 17 Questions put to 150 German civilians revealed remarkable unanimity about the responsibility of the Nazi Party leaders for beginning the war, and for its present hopeless continuance, reports Mr John Fairfax, Sydney Morning Herald war correspondent on the Rhine. The questions included: "Do you think the war is being prolonged for the good of Germany or for the good of the Nazi Party leaders?'' The answers were: — For the good of Germany, two. For the good of the Nazi Party leaders, 115. The balance did not answer. To the question: "Who do you think is responsible for the outbreak of war?" The answers were: The Nazi Party leaders, 123; the German High Command, 20; the German people as a whole, 1; the Allies, 1. The questions were put to eqnal_ numbers of men and women. It was in the form of a secret ballot—they were not required to sign their answers, nor did they show them to each other. All but ten thought the Allies would win the war. NO CONTRACTING OUT ISOLATIONISM OBSOLETE LESSON OF ROCKET BOMB "The threat of isolationism in America, while it is not to be brushed aside, is nut in my view formidable," said Mr Raymond Gram Swing in a broadcast talk. "Not that the isolationists are not there, repeating the same old argument; but geography has changed, and there simply is not going to be any isolation even if there are isolationists. "in a world of developed rockets an aggressor can send his rockets oyer any distance, drop them over any cities he desires in any number. And what is there to do about that but to build cities underground as iu a Mr H. G. Wells fantasy'< It seems to me that the greatest achievement of Germany's vaunted V2 bomb has been to make international collaboration the direst necessity that ever confronted the human race. The implications of the rocket-bomb have not become part of the accepted ideas of all people—but they will. And they will work on the future with the eloquent aid of superplanes, a further development of the 829, and the knowledge of the advance of amphibious war which of itself has re-dated the safety of oceans. " We thought the last war had taught us that civilisation could not survive a great war. Now this science of warfare has really produced something that proves it. And while there are tired brains feverishly feasting on apparitions of the next world war—they are not the true prophets of this era —■ the only true prophet is a prophet of peace. "So I am not apprehensive about America relapsing into the isolationism of 1920, seeking to escape its responI sibilities. Anglo-American relations," Mr Swing concluded, "are governed by the truth that there is no contracting out of them. We are in each other's world; wo need each other; the facts of life make us indispensable to each other." GOEBBELS ON HITLER FANTASTIC ADULATION An article by Goebbels in Das Reich was entirely devoted to a eulogy of Hitler in terms ranging from blasphemy to the crudest sentimentality. Here are a few extracts: — "If the world really knew what Hitler has to say and give to it, and that his deep affection is bestowed on the whole of mankind, it would, even at this late hour, forsake its false gods and make him the object of its adulations. He is the greatest of the presentday personalities. His is the Olympian solitude of the genius which rises triumphantly above everything. _ "Never does a word of deception or of base intent cross Hitler's lips. He is truth itself. .... 1 do not often speak in public about the Fuehi'ter because I deem his personality too exalted for me to compare it with other values of our age. He is our superhuman example, our miracle." THE SNIFTER For a long time one of the greatest drawbacks of improvised airfields was the damage that waste pieces of metal could do to aeroplane tyres, says a writer in the Times Engineering Supplement. R.A.F. engineers in Italy have now got over that problem by devising a machine they call a Snifter. This is a magnetic sweeper, which, when hooked to a jeep and driven around an airfield will pick up every piece of metal itpasses over. i