SOVIET ATTITUDE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 114, 17 May 1939, Page 7

SOVIET ATTITUDE

THE PEACE FRONT Mutual Assistance Wanted BRITISH PROPOSALS NOT SATISFACTORY (Bv Telegraph— Press Association - Copyright) LONDON, May 15. Reuter’s learns from Russian quarters that the London-Soviet communication regards the British proposals as unsatisfactory and as not going far enough, not even indirectly guaranteeing Soviet ter- 1 ritory, besides leaving a wide gap between Poland and Finland, where border States re not covered, while no account is taken of the possibility of a direct attack against Soviet territory. The Soviet presses .'or a pact of mutual assistance, covering both rtirect and indirect attacks, not only upon the territories of guaranteed States, but also upon contracting parties. NO AMPLIFICATION YET POSITION OF SMALL STATES. ' , BRITAIN HAS NO OBLIGATIONS. I British Official Wireless. J Received May 16, 7.30 p.m. 'RUGBY, May 15, A further communication has been received at the Foreign Qfiice from the Soviet relevant to the AngloRussian negotiations and is under j examination. The reply had not arrived when Mr. Chamberlain answered questions in the House of Commons. Mr. Chamberlain said he was unable to amplify Wednesday’s statement, adding that Lord Halifax would have an opportunity to pursue conversations with the Soviet representative at Geneva. Mr. Chamberlain also answered a question relative to the attitudes of Poland and Rumania towards the Anglo-Russian negotiations which, he said, were well known to Britain, though they had not been given formal shape. He insisted that it would he inappropriate for him to disclose these views, all the more since the recent visits of M. Potemkin to Bucharest and Warsaw would have given an opportunity for an exchange of views between the Soviet representative and the two Governments. Mr.-R. A. Butler was asked what were Britain’s obligations towards Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and whether, in the event of Russia being involved in war as the result of de-’ fending any of these States against aggression. Britain was under an obli* i gation to come to the aid of Russia? "The Government is under no obligations to these States, except such as I they may derive from their memoership of the League of Nations” replied Mr. Butler. “I can add nothing: to Mr. Chamberlain’s statement on. the progress of the discussions.” COMMON PEACE FRONT AN INTERNATIONAL APPEAL. • lndej>en«ient Cable Ser. ice J Received May 16, 9.30 p.m. LONDON, May 16. Five hundred delegates from 35 countries at the International Conference on Democracy. Peace and Humanity, appealed to the British and French peoples to take the initiative, with the co-operation of the Soviet and the United States, to build up a firm and common front of all States desirous of maintaining peace against aggression.