Evening star., 1938-05-20
Russia Re.enters EurOpe.

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culinary program of purging the Red
Army and the Soviet political system
Of presumptive or proved traitors, both
Europe and Asia have essayed to write
off the U. S. S. R. as factor which
needs to be taken into consideration in
the present-hour cut-throat game Of in
ternational intrigue across the Atlantic.
With so many of her best military
minds and intellectual leaders rubbed
out by firing squads Russia forfeited
much of the prestige that was hers fol-
lowing admission to the League Of
Nations, diplomatic recognition by the
United States and other evidences of the
Soviet Unions return to the ranks Of
flrst-class powers. Japan went to war
with China in the conviction that the
claws Of the bear were no longer danger
Gus. On this side of the world. Great
Britain, France, Italy and Germany pro-
ceeded to redraw the maps of Europe
and Africa regardless of the sprawling
900 inhabitants, its army of 100000
and its domain that dwarfed in size
the rest of the continent.
Late events reveal the reluctance of
Russia to accept the role of a cipher.
Foreign Commissar Litvinoff happens
to be in Paris, after the recent blow-up
of the League over the Ethiopian be-
trayal. He has taken occasion to tell
France where she gets off, if she persists
in treating the Soviet alliance as
scrap of paper and putting all her eggs
in the Anglo-Italian basket or eventually
in four-ply hamper containing Ger
many. 1t is now clearer what Mussolini
meant the other day when he disclosed
that French-Italian agreement, sup
posedly in the making along lines of
the Italo-British accord, looked diff
cult because of French support of the
Spanish government.
What seems to have happened, the
Associated Press reports. is that the
Soviet Ambassador at Paris, clearly
under the inspiration of Litvinoffs
presence, dropped hint to Foreign
Minister Bonnet to consider Frances
possible position in Europe without Rus
sian support. The Daladier government
Is obviously between the devil and the
deep blue sea. The Fascists resent
French friendship with Russia in general
and, in particular, its effect on the
situation in Spain. There a decisive
Franco -Mussolini victory continues to
be denied because of the Loyalists'
ability to derive military supplies from
the Soviet or France. or from both.
Russia, on her part, threatens to quit
the Anglo-French bloc if sinews for
Barcelona are curtailed.
Despite the security bulwarks which
would accrue to France through accords
with Great Britain and Italy, she has
always to remember her danger of
dangers - Germany " with its growing
army, now estimated at 100000 men, as
compared with Frances 100000. NJ.
Daladier, seeking to wipe out this dis
parity, has just ordered the recruiting
of 10000 native troops in Tunisia, French
North African protectorate. Character
istic light is cast on the state Of mutual
confidence existing among the egoistic
operators on the European chessboard
by the revelation that while plotting
peace with Rome Paris is also planning
a little Maginot line" in Tunisia, fac
ing Italian Libya, as the French answer
to II Duce's demands. 1t is in these
troubled waters that Russia has de-
cided to fish while the biting is good.
The latest advices from Paris would
indicate that the bear has angled with
some success, for Premier Daladier on
Thursday made statements which pre-
sage the collapse of negotiations for a
Franco-1talian friendship pact. His
fortnight assertions of Frances de-
termination to preserve her existing de-
tense arrangements are the Paris gov
ernment's rejoinder to Mussolinis at
tempt to break up the Franco Russian
alliance.