Evening star., 1939-04-22
The Soviet's Opportunity

The Soviet's Opportunity
Diplomacy has been defined as the
art Of waiting for opportunity and
then making the most of it. Some
such realistic conception of the SCI
ence of statecraft palpably inspires
the attitude of the Soviet Union to-
ward the eagerness of Great Britain
and France to harness the vast mill
tary and economic resources of Rus
sia to the juggernaut of preponderant
force which the western democracies
would weld into an invincible non
aggression bloc against Germany
and Italy.
The U. S. S. R. has proposed vir-
tual resurrection of the Anglo-Fran-
co-Russian triple entente, which
confronted the Central Powers in
1914, but would conceive it as bull
wark against future aggression by
any of the three Fascist powers
Germany, Italy or Japan. 1t would
be an unqualified reciprocal military
alliance whereby Russia would pledge
her all to defend Britain and France
in exchange for guarantee by them
to use their full strength to protect
the Soviet Union. Russia's introduc-
ton Of Japan into the negotiations
is logical step, because, should gen.
eral war ensue, the Soviet Union
would automatically face hostilities
on two fronts-with Germany in Eu-
rope and with Japan in Asia.
At this long range, the Russian
proposal does not seem to lack plau-
sibility. No country has ever been
more directly threatened by Hitler
than the Soviet Union, on whose
great Ukrainian province, with its
ineXhaustible mineral and agricul-
tural wealth, the Fuehrer at Nurem-
berg in 1885 brazenly avowed Ger
many's designs. Nor are Japan's
longings with respect to the maritime
provinces Of Siberia, Sakhalin and
Russian territory adjacent to Man
chukuo hardly less notorious.
Under these circumstances, what
is more natural than that Litvinoff,
In the hour of acknowledged Anglo
French need, should seek to drive a
collective security bargain that would
gain for Russia only, after all, what
Chamberlain and Daladier would
gain for their countries? And who,
other considerations apart, can blame
Moscow, after being -shouldered
at Munich, for exploiting to the full
the post-Munich necessities of Lon
don and Paris?
1t requires only a glance at the
kaleidoscope map of Europe to
realize the importance of Rus
sia's adherence to any effectual
anti-axis bloc. Turkeys men,
bership would be an additional
element Of strength, for the Darda-
nelles are vital link In any Anglo
French plan to thwart a German
Italian threat in the Mediterranean
and the Near East. The British and
the French have undertaken to de-
fend Poland and Rumania, but they
are, as cold matter of fact, in no
position to do so except by way of at
tacking the axis powers in Western
Europe. Polish and Rumanian terri
tory in the meantime might be over
run by the Germans, as they over
ran Belgium and Eastern France in
1914, despite the Intervention of
Britain.
The Soviet Union, the next-door
neighbor of both Poland and Ru-
mania, is in position at once to come
to their rescue. The u S. s. R. in
other words fills gap in the anti
aggression combination. Reluc-
tance In Warsaw and Bucharest to
accept guarantees which might in
volve the presence of Communist
Russian troops on their soil is under
standable. But Fascist-menaced
Europe is confronted by condition
and not theory-a condition which,
as Mr.. Chamberlain has pointed out,
transcends Theological" differences.
Those differences are posed by what
Mussolini on Thursday called the
"pyramidal" facts of geography.
Those facts happen to advantage
Russia's present-hour diplomacy. The
nations whose history at critical mo-
ments was made by Pitts and Palm
erstons, by Talleyrands and Richie
1ieus, have little reason to stand
aghast at the attempts of Stain and
Litvinoff to make hay while the sun
OF opportunity for Russia shines.