RUSSIAN AGGRESSION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24328, 19 June 1940, Page 6

RUSSIAN AGGRESSION

The fresh acts of aggression that have been committed by the Soviet against Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are not to be satisfactorily explained by the assertion that these small States, with a combined population of under five millions, had formed a military alliance which was detrimental to Russian interests and was, in fact, “ profoundly dangerous and menacing ” to them. It is palpably a mere pretext that Russia was apprehensive of the possible consequences of such an alliance, if it existed, even though Finland might be induced to become a party to it. Russia had last year forced first one and then the others of the three countries into the acceptance of a virtual protectorate over them. She had demanded naval bases, air bases, and garrisons, and not one of the small States was in a position to resist her demands. They were, each of them, completely at her mercy, and have been more completely so ever since. For the true explanation of her present action, it is clearly necessary to look beyond the ground upon which she affects to base it. Nor is it particularly helpful to be informed that only a few days ago Germany and Russia signed a treaty in Moscow providing methods by which disputes in border incidents might be settled. Any such treaty could not justly be held to be applicable to the conditions, whatever they are, that have led to the further imposition of the will of Russia on the three little nations that are her neighbours on the Baltic coast. But, though the reason for the Soviet act of aggression may be obscure, the effect is clear enough in that it gives Russia an absolute mastery over the eastern Baltic coast.