A MOVE BY RUSSIA

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3467, 17 May 1934, Page 2

A MOVE BY RUSSIA

JOINING THE LEAGUE? OBSTACLES VANISHED. That Soviet Russia has about decided to enter the League of Nations and might take the necessary action to do so at the September Assembly is reported from usually reliable sources in Paris, says the “Literary Digest.” It. was said in diplomatic circles that soundings taken by Moscow leaders had convinced them thr t Russia would not only bo welcomed into the League, but that a seat on the League Council was assured. The Soviet Union, as a Paris correspondent of the Associated Press pointed out, must be officially recognised by such League members as Hollar'.d. Denmark, and others with whom Russia has no diplomatic relations ayet. As long ago as the past December Joseph Stalin, Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and generally spoken o as Russia’s “Big Boss,” told Waltoi Duranty, of the New York Times, : ; Moscow, that in so far as the Leagu. “despite its obvious shortcomings,' might act as an obstacle to war, it was to that extent of interest h Soviet eyes. In the present com plicated European situation, Mi Duranty reported, it was clear enoug' that Great Britain and France wen making strenuous efforts to retri and strengthen the League as a bid wark against war dangers which eve the most unprejudiced observer mu admit appeared chiefly to threaten from the two Powers whi.h demon stratively withdrew from the Leagu: namely, Japan and Germany. Both these Powers have given tin Soviet Union cause for anxiety, whim has not yet been wholly removed, a'm as Mr. Duranty . put it, “in othe words a situation has arisen such a Mr. Stalin contemplated, wherein tl i League was in a position of an obstacle to and a screen against firebrands." Taken Up Again. The League conversations between France’s former Foreign Minister Joseph Paul-Boncour, and Valeria: Dovgalevsky, Soviet Ambassador L France, were abandoned during tl.. French Governmental crisis. Bn; after a period of delay they were renewed by Louis Barthou, Minister u Foreign Affairs in Premier Gastoi Doumergue’s Government of Nat ion a Union. Meanwhile League officials were in formally making inquiries among tiv anti-Soviet States, and it was be lieved that an extraordinary sessioi of the Assembly might be calle whenever the Paris conversation made this worth while. Such was tin report from Geneva by a New Yorl Herald-Tribune correspondent whi noted that admission to the Leaug must be approved by two-thirds o the fifty-seven States, the Constitution of the Assembly, and since Russia expected a permanent place ii the Council, a unanimous Council vote also would be required. The Counci was scheduled to meet on May 14.

Moscow’s position as disclosed b, one of her most important diplomat in discussing the question of Leagu membership officially with this Geneva correspondent was summarised a: follows: —The Russian diplomat explained that hitherto the unwilling ness of the Soviet Union to join th League has been due to the fact tha: Germany and Japan were members These were countries, he said, will foreign policies basically at varianc< with those of the Soviet Union. Whe: they were in the League they createc “an inner contradiction within the institution,” and Soviet participa tion would have been productive o' no good. Making It Effective. That impediment having been re moved, the Soviet Government held the belief that the League could be strengthened and made effective a:: an agency for the preservation of world peace. According to the Russian diplomat cited, this could be brought about b,\ close co-operation of the four Great Powers, the United States, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Great Britain, and Fra’nce, and also, perhaps, Italy —all of whom were described as definitely anti-war and propeace. On this basis Russia was expected to press its demand for a definition of aggressor, in order to strengthen the security provisions of the Covenant which had been badly compromised by the Chinese-Japanese “debacle.” The Russia definition of aggression was said by this Geneva correspondent to have been best summarised by President Roosevelt —the presence of armed troops across a foreign frontier.