Despite the protracted delay in the negotiations now taking place im Moscow, it would be wrong to conclude that hope for an ultimate agreement is any less strong than it was, declares the Diplomatic Correspondent of the "Observer.
Indeed, he adds, the coincidence of interest between France, Great Britain and Soviet Russia has been emphasized, and has not diminished. Where interests totally coincide, the end is regarded as certain.
The main point of controversy, he points out, continues to be the refusal of the Baltic States to be guaranteed by an alliance. The Russian argument, on the contrary, is that it does not matter what the Baltic States feel about it.
The object of an alliance is to defeat German aggression. German aggression, against the Baltic States would be an indirect aggression against Soviet Russia. Therefore an alliance would protect the Baltic States whether those States wanted it or not, and would do so not in the interests of the Baltic States, but in the interests of Soviet Russia, France and Great Britain—
Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.