The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1939 Democracy’s Enemies

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21504, 17 November 1939, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1939 Democracy’s Enemies

ACCORDING to a report from the Berlin correspondent of the New York Times German military commentators are beginning to realise that the expected supplies from Russia will not be rolling into the country on the anticipated scale. It is being found that the Soviet Government has enough to do in looking after the economic affairs of its own country without worrying needlessly about the war requirements of the Nazis. Information already available created more than a suspicion that Soviet assistance would not amount to much, for the organisation of Russia is such that extraordinary effort would be necessary to divert supplies to Germany. There was ample evidence also to support the belief that the Soviet transport system, for one thing, would not be able to stand the strain. Progress could be made perhaps in two or three years, but in this present struggle the Nazis are unable to take a long-term view; they need succour immediately, and the fact that they will not be able to obtain it will bring them to defeat sooner than they imagined.

There can be little doubt now that the Soviet must be regarded as a virulent enemy of the democracies; that is the one point Nazi Germany and Russia have in common. The Soviet Union knew in August that the pact with Germany would tip the balance in favour of war although Moscow protested with voluble insincerity that it would promote peace. Germany needed but one assurance before she launched her brutal attack upon Poland. Russia gave that necessary assurance and was able to share later in the spoil. The odium attached to the tragic Polish adventure has to be divided equally between Russia and Germany. That is a point not to be forgotten.

It is true, of course, that the Soviet used the Nazi extremity as a means of furthering its own ends, but that does not detract from the general perfidy of Soviet policy, nor should it blind the democracies to the ultimate goal of Russia’s policy. It is Well to recall words uttered by Stalin in 1931, when he was speaking of the building up of Socialism in Russia. “But we have more serious and more important tasks —-the fulfilment of our obligations to the world proletariat,” he said. “We must so advance that the working class of the world shall say of us: ‘There is my shock brigade, my fatherland.’ ” That statement was republished in the Soviet press on September 29. When its full implications are considered it is easier to understand why Moscow was so eager to make use of the Nazis at the end of August. The precipitation of war in Europe was regarded by the Soviet as a convenient step in the direction of fulfilling this policy. As the Nazis miscalculated so will the Soviet be proved to have miscalculated, but in the meantime the democracies must become even more aware of the true nature of the enemies confronting them.