Evening star., 1939-08-27
Russian Agreement Is Hitler's
Outstanding Diplomatic Victory
Poland's Fate Held Sealed by Treaty Which
Promises Return of Baltic States of
Slovanic Origin to Soviet
By Constantine Brown.

Hitler has engineered a coup that has
shaken the foundations of Europe. What
ever interpretations may be placed on
the RuSSlan-German non-aggreSSlon
treaty, there is no doubt that this is Der
Fuehrers greatest diplomatic victory
In his criticism of the imperial policies
before the World War, Hitler bitterly
accused the former government of allow
ing itself to be drawn into war on two
fronts. This mistake he decided not to
repeat and the non-aggression pact
signed in Moscow by Foreign Secretary
Won Ribbentrop assures the Reich that
In the event of conflagration its back
will not be menaced.
Many observers compare the non
aggression pact with what happened to
Czecho-Slovakia at Munich 1t opens
wide horizons for the axis It is taken
for granted that the Russian German
agreement has sealed the fate of Poland
which will be partitioned either after a
short struggle or by her surrender to the
inevitable. The price paid to the Soviet
Union is reported to have been heavy,
buI III lllS lllldl dIldlySlS IL COSJ
nothing.
According to reliable reports from Ber-
lin and Paris the contracting parties plan
that a portion of Polish Ukraine, which
used to belong to Czarist Russia until
Poland was revived as an independent
republic, will be returned to the U. S.
S. r.. as will the Baltic states of Slavonic
origin. A reservation is indicated for
Finland, which is expected to be allowed
to retain her independence. What Eng
land and France refused to give Russia
as price for preserving Polands inde-
pendence has been literally granted to
the Moscow government by Her Hitler
Whether London and Paris were ac-
tually stunned" by the German-U. S.
S. r. non-aggression pact is matter for
speculation.
Businessmen See Stain.
Reports about the conversations be-
tween the German and Soviet govern
ments began to percolate through to
Washington last summer Some mystic
rious Swedish businessmen received the
distinct honor of being admitted to an
audience with Joseph Stain. 1t was
rare privilege since the Russian dictator
Is not lavish with his time. Few Ambas-
sadors see him and businessmen are ana
thema to the Kremlin hermit
Careful investigation and certain in
discretions of minor border official re-
vealed that the businessmen really were
businessmen, who. however, did not have
to talk dollars and cents They had
Swedish passports, but were not Swedes
The two men were Hitler's emissaries
and members of the unobtrusive yet i'm
portant ministry of national economy
These two men brought two things to
Stain: A definite proposal for loan
Of it was said then, s3oO,OOO0OO in man.
ufactured goods to be repaid by the U.
S. S. r. in raw materials. and certain
documents which interested Stain far
more than the financial transaction.
These documents were nothing less than
the minutes of conversations between
Nazi high officials and British special
emlssarleS. These converse tions in Ber-
lin interested Russia because they dis
closed that as early as December, 1898,
SAiS OiioAiDSi lolii WAS uIR-
ing the Reichsfuehrer to expand east
wards-toward the Ukraine, the Cau-
casus and the Caspian Sea-at the ex-
pense of the U. S. S. R.
Stain had known about the existence
of these minutes since Poland's foreign
minister, Col. Joseph Beck, rushed to
London to gain the support of the demo-
cratic states against Hitlers menace.
At that time Germany's Ambassador at
Moscow informed the then Foreign Sec
retary Litvinoff about the "goings on"
between the British and the Germans
while Mr.. Chamberlain still believed in
honeymoon between the axis powers
and the democratic governments of
Western Europe
Litvinoff Distrusted.
When the British and the French
governments approached Russia with a
proposal to join them in the stop Hitler
movement, Stain was lukeWarm, but
thought it wise to string along with the
western democracies for a while Lit
vinoff, who was suspected of being i'm
bued with the Geneva spirit" was dis
missed. He was no longer trusted by his
master. His wife was English, he knew
only too well about the betrayal of Brit
ain and yet he suggested to Stain to let
bygones be bygones and to play fair
with the British and the French.
What happened to the British and the
French intelligence services in Moscow
is difficult to say. The fact is that
nothing appeared to indicate that Down.
ing Street and the Quai d'Orsay were
aware of the visit of the two "Swedes"
to the Kremlin. Molotoff replaced Lit
vinof on May 4. He was given instruc-
tions by Stain to play an astute diplo-
matte game with the French and the
British ambassadors. They met fire.
quently and discussed the details of the
Russian -British-F French collaboration in
the event of war. An agreement would
be reached, temporarily. The ambassa-
dors rubbed their hands and cabled the
text to their respective foreign Offices,
who were elated. The press of the world
was informed that an agreement was
imminent. A few technical points re-
quired "retouching." These were cahled
back to Moscow and the ambassadors
brought these minor matters to the
attention of the Russian foreign secre-
tary He made long face. YES" he
said, these appear of little Importance
to your governments, but since I made
nv suggestions and we agreed tn the