Moscow, May 4.
FTER serving for fourteen years as Soviet Foreign Affairs Commissar, M. Maxim Maximovitch Litvinov (born Finklestein), was relieved of his portfolio yesterday, ostensibly on grounds of ill-health and at his own request. M. Viacheslav Mikhai Molotov, Soviet Premier, took over that post temporarily, Authoritative Soviet quarters denied that M. Litvinov''s departure foreshadowed any change in Soviet Russia's foreign policy. Other observers stressed, on the contrary, that, although M. Litvinov looked "strong enough despite his 63 years, he was always considered a supporter of the collective security policy which, it appeared M. Joseph Stalin, Secretary-General of the Communist Party and "strong man" of the U.S.S.R. was far from showing when he reported to the eighteenth Congress of the Party.
In his report, M. Stalin accused the Western Powers of "attempting to provoke a war between the Reich and the Soviets to solve their own difficulties."
Moreover, the recent suppression of the "Journal de Moscou," French-language weekly newspaper of the Foreign Commissariat, was held to have been a blow aimed at M. Litvinov. The persistent silence of the Russian press on the Anglo-Russian parleys also tended to confirm beliefs that M. Litvinov's removal was due to present developments in the parleys and to the Anglo-French rejection of Moscow's latest proposals.
These propositions would have been tantamount to an alliance and the conclusion of military accords, it was pointed out. Observers stated that M. Litvinov had been allowed to carry through his collective security policy after the Munich Agreement. He resigned owing to the failure of his efforts.
Soviet quarters, observers here said today, somewhat resented the fact that both Britain and France accorded guarantees to Poland, Rumania and Greece without previously consulting Soviet Russia or claiming reciprocity in these commitments. The Soviets always believed that Anglo-Franco-Russian co-opera tion should be the nucleus of any new system on the Continent. They therefore thought that Britain and France had placed the cart before the horse when they had extended their guarantees without reaching an earlier agreement with Moscow.
The two Powers now lack the means to compel Poland and Rumania to accept Soviet ce-operation in the peace bloc, Soviet observers stated. They commented, somewhat bitterly, that "The U.S.S.R. is strong enough to stay away from the Western powers and maintain the isolated attitude that was forced upon her after
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.