DEMANDS BY RUSSIA

Southland Times, Issue 24860, 28 September 1942, Page 5

DEMANDS BY RUSSIA

AMERICAN PAPER TALKS PLAINLY (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, September 25. The New York Times, in an editorial, says:— “The Russians’ insistent second front demands call for plain speaking. We are not in this war to save Russia and she is not in this war to save us. She did not try to save Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands or France in 1941. She did not lift a finger when the invasion of Britain seemed imminent. However, let it be admitted that she was no more selfish than Britain and France when they abandoned Czechoslovakia to the wolves or when we connived at that betrayal. “Self-preservation is Russia’s first law. It is also ours. Self-preserva-tion dictates that Russia shall not risk permitting us to use her Siberian bases against Japan, though . we might save thousands of American lives and billions of dollars thereby. Self-preservation dictates that Britain and America shall not vainly sacrifice 500,000 men because we admire profoundly the gallant defenders of Stalingrad. “We have no choice but to allow the specialists to decide when we strike in Europe. A blow struck at this time at great risk and with great losses may contribute more to final victory than a heavier blow in the spring, but this is not a question to be settled in the pages of newspapers or magazines or on the floor of Congress. It is folly to attempt to settle it that way. “Let us say openly that we will not harry our President and his advisers into an unwise adventure. Let us confess that we believe as firmly in the American system as M. Stalin does in the Russian and let us face the fact that the systems are not alike. Let us; then, make every honest effort to establish a foundation on which they can exist peacefully and amicably in the same world. We can build on this understanding, but we cannot build on hyprocrisy.” SOVIET DETERMINATION Resolve To Destroy Hitler (8.0.W.) RUGBY, September 26. Mr Wendell Willkie told journalists in Moscow: “In Russia you realize the real meaning of the phrase ‘a peoples war.’ The Russian people are resolved to destroy Hitler. Five million Russians have been killed or wounded or are missing, while at least 60,000,000 persons, or nearly one-third of the population, are slaves in territory controlled by Hitler. There is no talk of quitting for Russia. It is victory or death.” RUSSIAN - FLEET IN BLACK SEA PASSAGE OF DARDANELLES PERMISSIBLE (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, Sept 26. Mr Sadag, the Turkish delegate to the Montreux Conference, in an article in the Istanbul newspaper Aksam, said that according to the Montreux Treaty any fleet deprived of all its ports has the right to cross the Dardanelles. Therefore, .if the Germans occupy all of the Black Sea ports the Russian Black Sea fleet will have the right to proceed to Kronstadt or Vladivostock.