SOVIET HIGH QUARTERS DIVIDED ?

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 288, 6 December 1939, Page 7

SOVIET HIGH QUARTERS DIVIDED ?

PROGRAMME WILL LATER APPLY TO GERMANY Ib-ccived Dee. ... 10.35 p.m. XEW YORK, Dec. 4. I he Xew 5 oi k Times' correspondent in Moscow, Mr. G. E. R. Gedye. er- "The impression in diplomatic circles is that there is a curious hestitaney in the Soviet attitude to the war. which coi responds ivitli all the known preliminaries to the invasioii. lie tacts might justify the assumption that high quarters are divided. Il may -well he true that the aggressive Leningrad influences have been trying to persuade Stalin to move more rapidly and further than he thought wise. Certainly the progress oi the 1-inuish affair has shown no evidence of the caution previously characterising Stalin’s foreign policy. Admittedly, this view directly contradicts that obtaining in Moscow 1 ommiiiii.,: circles, which approve the invasion and regard the December I programme as a revelation of a new turn in Soviet policy. I believe the programme is intended, with necessary mollifications. wider application. and is particularly intended bin’ll opportune. to be applied to Germany.”