Evening star., 1939-06-12
Consultation Urged
By Britain Before
Aiding Baltic States
Decision to Surrender to
Russio Changed to
Qualify Alliance
By PERTINAX.

PARIS, June IL (N.A.N.AD.-A de-
cision reached by the British min
listers last evening concerning the
instructions to be given to William
Strang, foreign Office aide who is
to go to Russia to push negotiations
for an Anglo-French-Russian mu-
tual assistance pact, is not yet known
in Paris.
But we know that Prime Minister
Sir Samuel Hoare during the last
few days had reopened a question
which seemed to have been settled
once for all at the cabinet council
held last Wednesday.
According to the formula which
was discussed then, France and
Britain extended to Soviet Russia,
concerning the Baltic states, the
concession granted to Poland last
April in relation to Danzig and
Lithuania. 1t meant that Russia
alone would be competent to ap-
preciate when her vital interests
were being affected by German
action in Latvia, Estonia or Finland
and could set in motion the auto
matte mechanism of Anglo-Fren
assistant to her.
Blank Check for Soviet.
Mr.. Chamberlain and his two
senior colleagues appear to have
perceived after the cabinet meeting
that to insert such a clause in the
contemplated Anglo French Rus
sian pact was tantamount to giving
Moscow a blank check, which, of
course, can hardly be denied At
the same time, they failed to realize
that, in today's circumstances, it
was hardly to be expected that Rus
sia's participation in the new Sc
curity system could be won on
cheaper terms and that the only
alternative was the immediate ruin
of that system.
AS consequence, they amended
rather draStically the draft of the
mutual assistance pact and pro-
vided for previous diplomatic con-
situations to take place whenever
the territorial integrity or political
independence of the Baltic states
would be placed in jeopardy and
Russia turned for help toward her
two great allies.
1t goes without saying that such
stipulation would not have even
the most slender chance to prove
acceptable to Moscow. Since Sat-
urday the French government has
been hard put to it to convince Lon
don that, on the above lines, there
wasn't any serious prospect of
agreement being arrived at with
Stain and his advisers.
To what degree Mr.. Chamberlain
has been converted to the French
ministry's views cannot yet be dis
cerned. Let us hope that the
British Premier has at last parted
with his illusions. The trouble with
him is that, up till today, he thought
it possible simultaneously to achieve
a set of contradictory purposes.
Wanted to Eat Cake, Have it.
On the one hand, he wanted to
have all the benefit of Russia S
cooperation, and thus hold up a
barrier of material force strong
enough to impress Hitler and Mus
solini and deter them from resort
ing to war. On the other hand
he wanted to keep Russia outside
the inner circle of the security sys-
tenn and in that manner not fatally
jeopardize whatever possibility may
still survive of convening an in
ternational conference In other
words, Mr.. Chamberlain wanted to
eat his cake and have it, too.
1t had to be explained to him
that, after the destruction of the
Locarno treaty, after the compile
ton of German rearmament, after
the suppression of Austrian and
Czecho-Slovak independence, Rus
sia would not rally to the cause
of the Western powers unless she
could exact her full price, and that
no middle way, indeed, was to be
found between allowing her prac-
tically free hand to protect her
vital interests in the Baltic area
as she understood them, with full
Anglo-French support, and reject
ing her isolation and even perhaps
into hostile attitude toward West
ern Europe, course likely, before
long, to compel France and Britain
to choose between war and repeti-
ton of the Munich surrender.