RUSSIA LIKELY TO BE NEUTRAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 293, 12 December 1941, Page 5

RUSSIA LIKELY TO BE NEUTRAL

WAR IN THE PACIFIC PACT WITH JAPAN STILL REMAINS IN FORCE. London. Dec. 10. Pending an official Soviet statement. well-informed circles declare there is no evidence to justify an expectation that Russia will abandon her policy of neutrality with Japan, based on the Russian-Japanese pact, says the British United Press Kuibyshev correspondent. Radio stations and newspapers in Russia continue to report the Pacific War objectively, without comment. M. Lozovsky has cancelled Press conferences, on the ground of illhealth. Foreign observers have no doubt where Russian sympathies lie. but it is considered that the war is being decided on the Russian front and that the Soviet forces are bearing the main burden. The Soviet Government is believed tc see no advantage ?n becoming involved in war with Japan, unless Russia's hand is forced. APPEAL TO RUSSIA "DECLARE WAR ON JAPAN” (Reed. 9.20 p.m. > London. Dee. 111. "We ask Russia to do for us what we have done for her announce that any enemy of ours is also her enemy. We ask Russia to declare war on Japan before Japan repeats the Hawaii attack on Viadivostock!" So says the Daily Express, in a leader. "With Hie use of Siberian airfields we can carry lhe war into the heart of Japan and strike at the source of Japanese sea attacks and land invasions. Russia alone can re- , verse the weapon of distance which Japan is using so effectively against her other toes.”