AID TO RUSSIA

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 63, Issue 4491, 17 October 1941, Page 5

AID TO RUSSIA

Sir, —<onc is pleased to see the courage and ability of women indicated by your correspondent Elsie. Coverdale. Undoubtedly the views she holds are held by a large and influential section of British people. There is, however, a great section, possiblv nfuch larger, which holds different views, and can no longer be hoodwinked into regarding the Russian advance into Poland and Finland as anythin** but a necessary and farsighted defensive move. Most people seem to have no difficulty in believincr that the Jews and incredibly poo'’ peasantry of the Polish occupied White Russia and Byelorussia were better off under their new protectors than under their former hated Polish landlords or the Nazi conquerors. So far as Finland, too, was concerned under its Prussian-trained and Naziloving Mannheim, it is now apparent that this territory was to be used as one of the bases of Nazi operations against Russia. And remember the planes and munitions Mr Chamiberlain and M. Daladier rushed to Finland—so badlv needed a little later at Dunkirk and in England. Indeed, I can find sympathy for the people of Poland and of Finland, but none for their former semi-Fascist government circles. If I am to condemn Russia’s action in these countries, I must also condemn our own actions a r Oran, at Dakar, in Iraq, in Syria, and in Iran. These actions I realise as due to grim necessity, as were those of the Russians. It becomes increas-

ing!” evident every day, particularly since Lord Beaverbrook and Mr Harriman have reported on their massiom that popular views on Russia and Russians have been much distorted b^ r propaganda for twenty-four years. The situation in which we now find ourselves makes it imperative that we should see Russia, net as Utopia, or vet as a den of thieves, robbers, and incompetent visionaries, but as a country which has made far-sighted and valiant efforts to prepare for th° present long-foreseen struggle, and at the same time has solved many of the problems of adapting the capacities of mjodern science and industry to the mjaterial needs and the spiritual aspirations of humanity while educating its people not to bo blind followers of a leader or a party but teaching them co-operation, self reliance, and self-sacrifice. I am. etc., KEITH HISKENS.