World Reactions to Soviet Aggression

Southland Times, Issue 23990, 4 December 1939, Page 6

World Reactions to Soviet Aggression

ALTHOUGH there may be misguided or strangely insensitive persons who do not regard the bombing of civilians as direct aggression, the overwhelming reaction of world opinion to Russia’s invasion has been horror and indignation. Only very simple people can see any reason why the occupation of Finland should be necessary for the defence of Leningrad, especially since Russia has already seized territory for air and naval bases in the three Baltic States. But even if Russia believed herself to be threatened by some unknown enemy there could be no possible justification for an attack on a neighbouring country which has shown herself democratic, industrious and peaceful and fully capable of protecting her own interests. One observer recently pointed out that the Baltic countries are linked to Russia in much the way that the Low Countries are associated with British strategy. But although Britain regards a threat to Holland or Belgium as a threat to her own safety she makes no attempt to seize bases on the

mainland as a precautionary measure. The policy and methods of Stalin have been brought to a point where only communists of the most fanatical temperament can pretend to defend them outside the Soviet Union. In countries as remote from democracy as Italy and Japan the immediate reaction has been as positive as in the United States and Britain. The people of Norway and Sweden have probably felt alarm as well as indignation, for they must know that once the Russians are at their frontiers the toofamiliar cry of provocation may be heard again in Moscow. Already the tone of Nazi propaganda is supporting the belief that, whatever, the German people may think of Finland’s ordeal, their leaders have connived at it, and are planning to take an active part in the next chapter of intrigue and blackmail. Fortunately the majority of British people are still able to feel sympathy for a small nation forced to make a stand against overwhelming odds, and the gallant fight now being made in the forests and by the lakes of Finland will be watched everywhere with hope and admiration. The world’s workers will endorse the statement made for the British Labour Party by Dr Hugh Dalton, who said in the House of Commons that “an act of aggression has been committed by a great Power against a small democratic country, and in our view such action is indefensible.”