WHAT STALIN WANTS

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21082, 8 April 1940, Page 8

WHAT STALIN WANTS

EXPANSION TO THE WEST CLASH WITH GERMANY? (Times Air Mail Service) LONDON, March 2 Understand what Stalin is after. He wants to reach the sea, gaining a western outlet for Russia on the Atlantic, writes George Malcolm Thomson in the Evening Standard. Stalin’s present port of Murmansk faces the Arctic. It is free of ice, but remote from the main highways of world trade. Stalin cannot gain his objective in Finland. The conquest of Finland is only a stage on his march. When he has added Finnish Hangc, which is north of the Gulf of Finland, to Estonian Baltiski, which is south of that Gulf, the sea approaches to Leningrad are safe. Then, with the Aaland Islands in his possession, Stalin becomes the guardian of the Gulf of Bothnia. Air bases in Finland will give him authority over Sweden. Stalin can then take the next stride westward. Kiel at the Gateway (1) The direct path out to the Atlantic lies along the Bdltic. But the German base at Kiel stands at the gateway of the ocean. If Stalin advances through the Baltic, he risks a collision with German interests. (2) A limited seizure of territory in North Sweden and Norway would give the Russians the Norwegian port of Narvik and the electric railway from Narvik linking up with the Finnish system. This railway is superior to the Murmansk line. And Narvik is a better equipped port than Murmansk; it is 550 miles nearer the main Atlantic routes. Its position at the head of a long fiord gives its natural strength as a base. By taking Narvik Stalin would also get control of the iron ore mines in North Sweden which provide the Germans with valuable material foi their arms industry. If the Germans have consented to a Russian advance over North Scandinavia they have at the same time handed their main source of ore for the manufacture of high-grade steel into Russia’s keeping. This. J am convinced, the Germans have not done. So Russian access to the sea, north or south, will still depend on German sea power.