FRANCO-SOVIET PACT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18955, 4 March 1936, Page 15

FRANCO-SOVIET PACT

GERMAN ANTAGONISM THREAT TO CAPITALISM ENEMY OF HITLERISM LONDON, Feb. 23. According to t'ho Berlin correspondent oi' the Times, Germany's hostility to the Franco-Soviet Pact is compounded in indignation, fear, and genuine regret that France, by linking up with an Eastern and Communist State, is making a Western European understanding .more difficult.

The whole Nazi .movement, it is contended, is based on the defeat of Communism, for which reason the argument that Germany has only to even out matters by joining the pact is treated with scorn.

The idea that a Soviet Russia and a Hitlerite Germany might, in any circumstance, be found fighting on the same side, is simply ridiculed. The pact would, .therefore, remain just as one-sided as ever, even if Germany were a party to it.

There is complete agreement on the statement in the French Chamber of Deputies by M. Doriot. that the chief of the Soviet Government is also the head of the Third International, whose aim is to overthrow capitalist rule. Horr Hitler, it is argued, could as easily divest 'himself of Nazi principles or Signor Mussolini of the Li-ctors' Rods as M. Stalin could of his struggle against capitalism. The Deutsche Allgemene Zeitung expreses the view which is universally held when it says: "Soviet Russia 'to-day shows the face of Janus. Despite all disavowals and subterfuges, the Soviet foreign policy and the Comintern are Siamese twins." POWERFUD NATIONS

There is also 'complete agreement with M. Harriot's statement of February 20 regarding the high estimate of the value of <the Red Army. The Russian soldier is- declared to be excellent lighting material, and the leadership of the officers and non-com-missioned officers is of a higher standard than has ever before been achieved. Moreover, Russia is paying enormous attention to air power. There is small "wonder, therefore, that Germany dislikes what looks like an alliance between two of 'the most powerful nations in Western and Eastern Europe. Germany apparently still regards the- Locarno Pact and understanding with the Western Powers as the best means of approach to a settlement of all her European problems, but, in German eyes, the Franco-Soviet Pact cut clean across Locarno. Moreover, if the Franco-Soviet Pad was ratified it would, it is argued, rule out the limitation of air forces which, it has been proposed, should accompany a Western air pact, which Germany still regards as the most desirable consummation of Locarno.

If the Franco-Soviet Pact is signed Germany must have an air force in the East, calculated separately from any equality of strengths agreed to between the Western Powers. All these arguments may be stummed up in one phrase: "Russia! There is the enemy." And by this Germany does not mean only the enemy of Germany, but of all European civilisation.