March 14.
In an endeavour not to be unfair to Sir Stafford Cripps, whose interview on the impressions of his trip through Russia, Sin kiang, the unoccupied parts of China to Chungking and thence to Shanghai was published yesterday, it should be pointed out that, after' all, they were only impressions. uttered on the spur of the moment, and just as spontancotis as the replies of a witness under eross-examination. So much ground was covered in so small a space that his remarks had to a Jarge extent to be epigrammatic, carrying with them all the faults of terseness. Nevertheless, he has made the statements reported, and they have to be considered in the light of all that is known in this part of the world. Despite all the horrenee which the Left is supposed to have for the application of force in the settlement of international disputes, Sir Stafford expresses every sympathy Russians in their frontiers, although he could not agree with the stupid way in which they were attempting to make them. The Soviet, he contended, was concerned with the possibility of Finland being used as a base for some other Power in the event of the European war taking a certain turn, What other? The Allies? Obviously they desire no extension of their fronts other than is foreed upon them, and to suggest that they would willingly a to war with Russia for the purpose of defeating Germany is to suggest that they would lightly increase the number of their enemies. "It has to be remembered that there was no Allied threat to Russia so long as it Kept out of Finland, and that country did not appeal for active assistance, and to suggest that any other explanation could meet. the cease is to endow the Soviet with a prescience which events in Finland have clearly shown them not to possess. That a rectification of Russo-Finnish frontiers might have formed some protection for Leningrad in the event Of hostilities between Russia and Germany is. entirely another matter, and if Sir Stafford is seeking to justify the Soviet on the score of fear of Germany, that is entirely different though even here it must be pointed out with all emphasis that at least on the face of things Germany and Russia are at present in the closest bonds of amity. The Soviet their invasion of Finland embarked upon a programme of grab according to the best Nazi models andi there pace Sir Stafford it has to be lett.
The distinguished Leftist is on entirely different and even more unsafe ground when he describes the German-Russian alliance due to the refusal of Great Britain and France to enter into an alliance with the Soviet. The fact of the matter is that the price—a free hand in dealing with the Bal-tie Slates and their practical subjection
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.