RUSSIA’S ROLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 228, 26 September 1945, Page 4

RUSSIA’S ROLE

Sir, —Recent cables and broadcasts from Home tell us of acute differences between U.S.A, and Great Britain on the one hand and Soviet Russia on the other over Balkan countries’ elections. Does it not seem deplorable that Britain should cause anything in the way of a rift with Russia over such a matter?

Without any disrespect to Mr. Bevin.l whom one admires, it is pretty safe to say that this is where Churchill and Anthony Eden are sadly missed; both men of long experience in handling such delicate matters and persona grata with Stalin and Molotov. Tablethumping will get us nowhere with a Russian.

We are apt to forget that the Balkan peoples are, for the greater part, Slavs; their characters . outlook on life and general mode of living very different to the western so-called democracies. I feel sure the majority of those of our N.Z. Division who made contact with them in Trieste and Yugoslavia will agree with this. Why, then, should Britain interfere in the regulating of a part of Eastern Europe which very few of her politic!-1 ans really understand? Allow Russia, to whom many of these same countries in the past have often referred to as “Mother Russia,” to supervise and control them. She compares favourably with many of the western nations in probity and her adherence to any treaties she may have formed, and has carried out her obligations in this war with a forthrightness and lack of delay which has exacted general admiration. It is to her interest that this past hotbed of unrest should remain quiet, and if allowed to handle the question in her own way, with help from Britain, it would, one feels sure, be the best possible thing for Europe as a whole. Much more might be written on Russia’s future place in European politics in the Near East but I have already inflicted you with sufficient.—l am, etc., A.W.S. Sept. 25, 1945.