Evening star., 1941-07-10
BY VINCENT SHEEAN,

dous drama may well inquire why,
when Germany so obviously was pre-
pairing to attack Russia, there were
no previous conversations or agree
ments between Russia and those
countries which were already op-
posed to Germany.
The answer is rather compli-
Gated but, i'll stmplified form, 1t
may be given like this:
The American State Department.
in particular Secretary Hull-has
hitherto been unwilling to recog-
nize that Russia's aggression upon
Finland, the Baltic States, Poland
and BeSSarabia was of protec-
tive or defensive nature against
precisely what has now happened.
This correspondent has some rea-
son to believe that the British gov
ernment was willing to talk with
the Russians two months ago, &C
coping as a basic fact that these
border areas had to be occupied for
Russia's protection, but that the
American State Department object
ed on the ground that all forms of
aggression are indistinguishable.
L. S. Blocked Arrangement.
Since the British and American
governments are in constant. close
consultation it was therefore impos-
sible for the British TO enter upon
any new phase of understanding or
agreement with Russia until Amer
lea agreed.
A second reason which must be
stated is merely military and his
torical now; that is, that Germany
was on the verge of attack at all
moments during the last six weeks,
and if any move had been made to
indicate an agreement between Rus
sia and England this would have
been the signal for such an attack.
If any important British delega-
tion had gone to Moscow. for eX-
ample, Adolf Hitler would have at
tackled at once and proclaimed that
he did so because of perfidious, un-
derhanded collusion between Prime
Minister Churchill and Premier
Stain. He cannot make this accu-
Sation now and get it believed by
any but the most uninformed people
because the historic fact is that
England and Russia never came to
terms until Hitler actually attacked
the Soviet Union.
Soviets Fighting for L. S.
AS things turned out. this was per-
haps better, In any case it now
becomes a paramount necessity for
England and America to recognize
that Russia is fighting for them. If
there is any confusion on this point,
it will be fatal, because it is precisely
this confusion which Hitler wishes
to produce and upon which he
CANDLES his all.
The question of Finland the Baltic
States and Poland certainly must
be reconSldered BeSsarabia is a
different question because in that
country the Russians have a legiti-
mate claim on the ground that the
population is largely Russian. The
same may be true in Western
Poland. Finland and the Baltic
States, although occupied by military
force against the wishes of the pop
ulatlon, constitute a special case
| without an exact precedent or
parallel in modern history. As it
now appears they were victims of
geography. They had to be occupied
by either the Russians or the Ger
mans, and the Russians preferred.
for reasons of military security, to
occupy them themselves.
Stains Big Mistake.
The worst of these cases was Fin
land. Here Premier Stain made
one Of the biggest mistakes of his
long and disastrous career. He
should have been able to persuade
the Firms that it was necessary for
Russia's defense to occupy the ap-
proaches to Leningrad. Since he
was unable to persuade them and
had to go 10 war against them, he
should have prosecuted that war to
its logical end and taken the whole
country from the Asland Islands to
the Arctic Circle. The compromise
to which he came was far worse than
doing nothing-he took the ap-
proacheS to Leningrad, but allowed
the rest of Finland to exist as a
hotbed of German activity and now
1t is actually Germany's stepping
stone to Leningrad and Northwest
Russia.
In the Baltic states and Poland
there was no armed resistance by
the population to Russian occupa-
ton and probably even the Ameri-
can State Department would not
make a great grievance out of these
actions if the Finnish war did not
lie over this whole subject like
San Francisco fog. The Finnish
war aroused feelings in America and
England which have been more
powerful than any other single fac
tor in preventing an understanding
with Russia. Stain would have
been far better off in this case if
he had done nothing.
Here in London Russian Ambas-
sador MaiSky and Foreign Secretary
Eden have circled around this sub
ject of agreement for six months.
AS is very well known, Mr.. Eden
has always been in favor of agree
ment with Russia on an anti-Nazi
policy and made his position quite
clear six years ago Thanks to this
rare quality Of common sense, Mr..
Eden's stock is higher now than it
has ever been since those early days
before the Spanish Civil War when
he was the glamour boy of high
politics.
Soviet Pact Common Sense.
But it was impossible to make
any kind of agreement with the
Russians so long as their action
around their borders was condemned
as criminal aggression. Both Eng
land and America had spoken au-
thoritatively on this subject and had
taken steps to implement their dis
approval. Now that Russia'S tenn
porary occupation of these border
areas has been supplanted for the
most part by what no doubt is in
| tended to be a permanent German