Evening star., 1942-10-06
Stain 'Prods'

Inc more one analyZeS Joseph
Stalin's open letter to Henry C.
Cassidy, Moscow correspondent of the
Associated Press, the more extraor-
dinary does it appear. Stain is
proverbially man of silence. His
public utterances on the war have
been few and far between. That he
should have taken the unusual step
of engineering statement to for
eign newspaperman is, in itself, SEN
sational. For, of course there can be
little doubt that Mr.. Cassidy submit
ted his questions by prearrangement,
and that Premier Stain answered
them deliberately and with some
major purpose in view.
The Red dictator makes no bones
of expressing his discomfort at the
absence of second 'front.'" which,
in Russian eyes, means a great
Anglo-American expeditionary force
launched at the Germans somewhere
on the Continental seaboard. In
deed, he goes much further than this.
He minimizes Allied aid already
given Russia in the shape of war
material and other supplies, and he
virtually demands that the British
and Americans fulfill their obliga-
tions fully and on time"
That last statement has the graveSt
implications. To the Russian public,
which has for months been led to
believe that second front was
surely coming this year, Stalins
words can have only one meaning
a let-down by their Allies, either
through culpable delays or in
breach of faith. Russians certainly
will not accept the explanation
set forth in the Anglo-American
press, that the time" referred to by
their omnipotent leader will be when
a second front is militarily feasible.
Yet that has been the meaning read
here from the beginning into the
joint communique issued in Wash
ington and London after Foreign
Minister Molotoff's visit to those
capitals in June. That was the start
of the rift which has now become
so wide. The communique itself
read: Complete understanding was
reached with regard to the urgent
tasks of creating a second front in
Europe in 1912" British and Ameri-
can official spokesmen intimated at
the time that this was not an abso-
Lutte pledge but promise contingent
upon military factors. And Mr..
Molotoff was given complete pic
ture of Allied resources and pros
poets. Yet the Russian public was
never informed of all this. On the
contrary, they were led to believe
that second front would be opened
at any cost. That Stain himself
felt that way was virtually conceded
by Mr.. Churchill after his Moscow
| visit last month
Official London's reaction to Stalins
statement is described as one of
amazement mixed with resentment,
and there is good reason to believe
that Washington is of much the
same mind 1t looks as though Mr..
Stain were giving the Allied govern
ments and general staffs a prod
ding" like that suggested by Mr..
Willkie, in the shape of an appeal
to the American and British peoples
over the heads of their accredited
leaders. Why he did this may be
explained in various ways, none of
them agreeable in import. One
thing is certain: No genuine second
front can be improvised So gigantic
an operation would require months
of careful preparation. To hurl big
makeshift force across the Channel
would merely invite super-Dieppe.
Such a reverse might dash the hopes
of subjected peoples in Nazi-occu-
pied Europe, would probably divert
shipping from supply routes for
Russia, and would almost certainly
fail to divert German forces from
the Russian front.
Yet, knowing all this, Stain has
written as he did. And he is known
to be a deliberate person who never
acts without reason satisfactory to
himself. We will probably soon
know what he has in mind, for he
has precipitated an issue that must
be thoroughly aired on both sides.
Presidential Indoreement