Evening star., 1945-10-01
Stuiiin
Continued From First Page.)

ly and fluently, looking you straight
in the eye.
Occasionally Stain will make a
forceful gesture with his closed fist,
indicative of his inf1eXible will. You
instinctively trust the generalissimo
as you talk to him. His answers
are direct and to the point. When
he laughs it is a good, hearty laugh
such as we Americans like. After
thanking the generalissimo for the
hospitality which I had enjoyed in
his country and for the privilege of
seeing him, knowing how busy he
was, told him that I did not come
In any official capacity representing
my Government but that am
member of the Foreign Relations
Committee of the United States
which has a very large part in the
formulation of our foreign policy
and I wanted the privilege of dis
cussing certain things with him.
I then asked Generalissimo Sta
lin If he would be good enough to
tell me what the objectives of the
Soviet Union in domestic and for
eign policy are now that peace has
come to the world.
Stain talked for some little time.
The gist of his reply was that the
Soviet Union wishes to repair the
damage of war and to build up the
industrial strength of his country
and to raise the standard of living
of the people.
War Damage Cited.
THE Soviet Union has sustained
terrific war damage to its transpor-
tation system, to its industry, and
TO it's productive facilities" said the
generalissimo.
To aid in repairing this destruc-
ton and in building up Soviet in
dustry and production, he said, the
Soviet Union had applied to the
United States six months ago for a
5000 .000, 900 loan.
then asked what answer could
be given to the critics who said that,
If the United States made the loan to
the Soviet Union such funds would
be used by the Soviet Union not to
raise the standard of living of the
people to build up the productive
facilities of the nation, but to con-
tinue large-scale war production.
Stain smiled and said that that
statement was ridiculous. He said
that it would be suicide for the
Soviet Union to try to keep up
large-scale war production. The
best evidence, he said, that the
Soviet Union was curtailing its
war production was the fact that
it had demobilized almost 100000
men of the Red Army and would
continue demohilization until the
Red Army is down to about one
third its wartime strength. He
said he had explained in consider
able detail to the United States con-
gressional delegation which had
seen him Just ahead of me as to
the Use the Soviet Union expected
to put this loan If it were granted.
The generalissimo emphasized
that the Soviet Union meant to
pay back the amount of the loan
and If the loan should be agreed
10 In principle, then the two gov
ernments could work out the de-
tails about payment.
Stain knows that Russia and the
United States have been held close
ly together during the war by the
cohesion of MUTUAL self-interest in
destroying the Axis, and that the
enc of the war has tended to bring
about a weakening of that tie.
Nov. that our common enemies
have been defeated by our joint eff
forts" Stain said, your country
and mine must find new common
ground for cooperation in the
peacetime.H
! asked l. he was confident that