“Empty Formula”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 417, 27 July 1928, Page 9

“Empty Formula”

SOVIET NOT IN TREATY

Moscow’s Spectre of War

(United P.A. —By Telegraph — Copyright) Times Cable. LONDON, Wednesday. 'THE Berlin correspondent of “The Times” says the “Berliner ! Tageblatt” publishes an article from its Moscow correspondent, Herr Paul Scheffer, anent the attitude of the Soviet toward the Kellogg pact for the outlawi’y of war.

It expresses opinions which presumably are those of Herr Scheffer himself, but it is possible to read in them an expression of the official Soviet view.

The writer says he considers such a pact must remain an empty formula if it lacks the signature of the Soviet. He suggests in a guarded way that Moscow would gladly adhere to the pact if it were sure no opposition would arise. Undoubtedly the Government of the United States desires Russia’s adherence to the pact, but it cannot make an approach to the Soviet, as theoretically the Soviet Government does not exist in the eyes of Washington. SOVIET WANTS PEACE

Ilerr Scheffer goes on to say he has not the slightest doubt that the present desire of the Soviet Government is for peace. It is more to blame for the hostile words and actions of others than it admits, he says, but a decisive factor is the insecurity of the Soviet Union and the possibility that the next storm-burst on this front will extend everywhere. The fear of encirclement is a real spectre in Moscow, the writer asserts, and accordingly the greater is the inducement 1*) accompany the Powers on

the road to friendship, and to play a part on the world’s stage as an equal among equals. The deep scepticism which overloads the Kremlin regarding the Soviet’s foreign relations has caused the preparation of the party and the masses for a coming war “against the proletarian State.” NIGHTMARE OF WAR Just as the Soviet urgently wishes to relieve the tension in and about Russia which has arisen from this nightmare of war, so is the question a decisive and a more pressing one for Europe, because it is gradually blocking the way to a settlement with the red and mysterious East. The activity in the West over the organisation for peace, says the correspondent, proceeds simultaneously with the retrogression to war and anarchy in the eastern half of Europe. The Kellogg pact is possibly the last chance to arrest this process and to give a turn for the better. By entering the ranks of the pact Powers the Soviet would gain a more active interest in entering the League of Nations, which is the American conception of thorough ingenuousness and simplicity, and would bring it nearer the original task, namely, the maintenance of peace.