The Soviet’s Answer

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21361, 2 June 1939, Page 8

The Soviet’s Answer

Although the Soviet Commissar of Foreign Affairs (M. Molotov) has announced his Government’s rejection of the combined British and French overtures for the building up of a common peace front in Europe, reports from London and Paris indicate that the final words have not yet been said and that an ample margin for negotiation still remains. Berlin, on the other hand, welcomes M. Molotov’s statement as a rebuff to Britain and France, but there is not really much ground for German exaltation. With circumstances as they are, it is inevitable that the Soviet will attempt to drive as good a bargain as it can, for its co-operation appears essential if an effective peace front is to be established. It can, possibly, afford to impose conditions which ordinarily would not be palatable to some quarters in Great Britain, but the acceptance of which could be justified by the exigencies of these times. There is one statement of M. Molotov’s which gives an idea of what the Soviet would consider a satisfactory arrangement to be. “The Italo-German alliance,” he says, “establishes the principle of absolute reciprocity. There is no reciprocity in several of the early AngloFrench proposals.” It is not likely that Britain and France would care to enter into an arrangement with the Soviet as unequivocal as that existing between Germany and Italy, but at the same time decisions in the matter must be dictated by expediency. According to the Soviet view an absolute and unqualified reciprocity in defeuce is the way to circumvent future aggression in Europe, but M. Molotov declares of Britain and France that “it is impossible to think now whether they really want to end aggression.” There should not be any doubt in the minds of the Soviet leaders, or the leaders of any other country, that Britain and France are determined to curb new aggression if it lies in their power to do so, and in the tasks which may be ahead they will stand with the Soviet if her terms are reasonable. Provided sinister and unrevealed forces are not at work, it should be possible to establish a peace front sufficiently strong to hold all potential aggressors in check.