Evening star., 1943-03-10
Allied Leaders Quoted
Freely in Russia on
Aid, A. P. Writer Says
Government Itself ToIks
Little on Subject, but
People Know, He Asserts
Bv HENRY c. CASSIDY


Chief of Associated Press Bureau in Moscow
NEW YORK. March 1O.-The
Soviet government has its own way
OF letting its people know about
Allied aid-not through anything it
says itself. but through what other
Allied leaders say.
Admiral William H. Standlev
United States Ambassador, who was
quoted from Moscow as telling a
press conference he failed TO find
any real acknowledgment" of Amer
lean assistance in the Soviet press,
evidently referred to lack of state
ments of appreciation by Russian
leaders
None has been made publicly by
any prominent Soviet statesman,
But the press has published frequent
references from abroad to Allied
supplies - references which have
been made available to millions of
Russian readers.
Russian reluctance to comment on
the flow of Allied material dates
back to the original supply confer
ence in Moscow in September. 1941.
An American delegate to the confer
ence told me he was surprised bv
the casual way in which the Soviet
authorities accepted offers of Amer
lean and British aid.
Opposes Big -Brotherly Air.
This attitude is attributed by Mos
COW observers to three factors:
l. The Soviet Union does not wish
its Allies to take a big -brotherly air
in sending supplies to Russia.
2. The main desire of the Soviet
Union is to see the United States
and Great Britain open a second
land front in Europe.
3. Actual Allied deliveries to the
Soviet Union apparently have not
reached original estimates. because
of losses en- route and other factors.
I have heard responsible Russians
comment that our assistance, in sup
plies alone, was roughly equal only
to that given by Hungary to Ger
many, and that the Allied material
on hand corresponded only to the
oubJub vi odi dUOF. II SIllBlt SONl6b
industrial city on the Volga.
But figures given by Edward r.
Stettinius, ir., lease-lend admins
traitor. in Washington last January
90, estimating that the United States
and Great Britain had consigned
$500 tanks and 1900 planes to Rus
sia, were published January % in
Pravda, Communist party organ and
most important Soviet newspaper.
From Moscow newspapers in my
possession, find a speech made in
New York November 19 by w. Aver
ell Hartman appeared in the Soviet
press November "a, saying: Food
has been taken from the slim British
diet to send to the Russian people
. . more is on the way"
Roosevelt Speeches Quoted.
President Roosevelt's Columbus
Day speech last october IL was given
top display in the foreign news pages
of the same newspapers october IA,
with his mention of men of the mer-
chant marine bringing war material
and provisions to the defenders of
Stalingrad and other United Nations
forces.
Other speeches by President
Roosevelt and Prime Minister
Churchill, with references to Allied
aid to the Soviet Union have ap-
peared periodically in the news
papers of Moscow and other Soviet
cities.
The Soviet authorities have taken
another way of acknowledging Allied
assistance. They have escorted
foreign correspondents on trips to
see American and British tanks and
planes. On other visits to the front,
they have pointed out American
trucks and jeeps, and even such less
conspicuous equipment as field tele-
phones.
The stories of these trips were
written for foreign newspapers, and
did not appear in the Soviet press,
but the men who drove the tanks,
flew the planes and talked over the
telephones told the correspondents
freely that they liked the equipment
and wanted more.
AS for the food which Is being
sent. the Moscow bureau of the As
sociated Press received message, at
the time when American lard was
first put on sale publicly in ex-
change for meat ration tickets. 1t
was from an 80-year-old woman who
said: An old Russian hopes you will
thank your Americans for the nice
lard they are sending US
The Soviet government has not
been talking much about Allied aid,
but the Russian people, to all ap-
pearances. know about 1t and ap-
preciate it.