Evening star., 1941-05-04
Stalin's Hope of Winning War
BY Default Faces Showdown
Near Future May Tell Whether Red Dictator Will
Emerge as Astute Politician or Become
Yes Man to Hitler
Rp Josehh IL Baird
By JOSEPH III. Baird.

Viewed in the light of Comintern phi
losophy, Stains policy toward the war
becomes consistent. 1t is inteligtble.
1t makes sense.
During the spring Of 1899 when Brit
ain and France we're debating whether
they would take the fatal step that led
to War-their guarantee of Polish SOW
ereignty-no one was more aggressive
in urging the Chamberlain government
to underwrite the Poles than the British
Communist party acting on orders from
Moscow. In the end Stain scored.
Britain and France were committed to
war if Hitler marched into Poland, as
Stain felt sure that he would.
Party Line" Changed.
The Red leader, after fatuous and
deceptive flirting with the French and
British general StaffS, then proceeded
to encourage Hitler by signing a pact
guaranteeing that he would not have to
fight Russia-that there would be no
dreaded war on two fronts. The Ger
mans marched. Stain then climaxed
his diplomacy by carving off a liberal
slice of Poland.
With amazing suddenness the party
line" changed Communists in London
and New York who had been shedding
tears six months earlier over the i'm
pending fate of Poland discovered over-
night that the Polish landlords" had
been plotting against the Soviet father
land.
Shortly afterward American Commu-
nists, whose policy always is laid down
in Moscow, seized the banner of the
isolationists and began to chant that
the "Yanks are not coming" Today
they are leaders in the campaign against
aid to Britain.
In the Far East Stain has followed
a strikingly parallel policy. For sew
eraI years before 1887 Gen. Chang Kali
shek and the Chinese Communists
headed by Gen. Mao Tse-tung had been
fighting almost constantly Macs forces
being supported by Russia. But in that
year Moscow, frightened by the simul-
taneous growth of military power in
both Germany and Japan, decided that
1t was necessary to unite China against
the latter. The Chinese Communists
were ordered to cooperate with Chang
and present united front" to the
japanese war lords
- AS result Of this policy, Japan has
been begged down in the China cam
paign for four years, giving Russia rela-
tive safety in the East. Moscow even
sent military supplies to Chang Now,
suddenly, in order to play off Japan in
the Pacific against Anglo American
power, Stain concludes non-aggression
pact with his old enemies, the japanese,
and leaves China to its fate.
Fruition of Soviet Policy.
If. now, Russia can successfully pro-
mote an Anglo-American-Ja japanese war
in the Pacific, the man in the Kremlin
will have carried Comintern policy to its
fullest fruition.
But, meanwhile, new dangers face
Stain in Europe.
Faithful to the understanding he
reached with Hitler in the late summer
of 1899, Stain has acted as Der Fuehrers
man Friday" He has used the COMM
tern in Great Britain and America to
aid Germany. Despite German penetra-
ton in the Balkans, long regarded by
Russia as its own historical sphere of
influence, he has made no threatening
gesture. Stain has freed Japan's hands
for an attack on American and British
interests in the Pacific. He has given
Germany some supplies-oil and wheat
and kept open the Trans-Siberian rail-
road to German commerce with the Pa
cific. Until last week when decree was
issued barring shipment of all war ma
terial through Russia.
One of the best-informed of American
officials makes this prognosis:
/. Hitler may force on Stain a role
like that of Mussolini-nominal dictator
of land where agriculture and industry
are actually directed by German agents
whose sole concern will be the adequate
supplying of oil and wheat to the Reich
Army.
2. Stain, bound by his many state
(See STAIN, Page C-3)