WESTERN POWERS AND RUSSIA

Southland Times, Issue 25482, 30 September 1944, Page 5

WESTERN POWERS AND RUSSIA

Opinions Differ On Security League

(Rec. 9 p.m.) NEW YORK, Sept. 28. Comments by the delegates at Dumbarton Oaks and Administration leaders on the differences of opinion between Russia and Britain and America may be summarized as follows, says the Washington correspondent of The New York Times:—

(1) Russia is eager to co-operate with the United Nations in a system of collective security, but has not yet got over her fear that the great powers may turn the league into a sort of capitalist alliance against Russia. Russia especially remembers that the League'of Nations never reached unanimity of action against Germany and Japan, but unanimously expelled Russia from the League on the occasion of the first Finnish war. In other words, the capitalist bogey in Russia is still as strong as the communist bogey in the west. (2) Russia is not harbouring great expansion dreams and not plotting to convert Europe to Communism, but insists on the inclusion within her boundaries of Karelia, the Baltic States and

Poland, east of the Curzon Line as essential for Russian security. This, whether we like it or not, is the fundamental Soviet policy. POWER OF VETO The real difficulty in the international field will not be with the small powers, but the middle powers, like Canada, Brazil and the Netherlands, who are not arguing for equal authority with the Big Four, but are not enthusiastic over Russia’s insistence that each permanent member should be entitled to veto the council’s action, even if one of the Big Four is a party to the aggression under discussion. Specifically, the Russians do not wish to get themselves into a position where the Baltic States or Poland might appeal to the new League for territory which Russia considers her. own. For example, Russia thinks the United States should not ask her to give up the Baltic States any more than Russia should ask the United States to return Texas to Mexico.

Nobody doubts that these Russian considerations contributed greatly to the fact that the Russian phase at Dumbarton Oaks took six weeks, instead of the expected three, and ended without full agreement.