Evening star., 1946-07-07
Diplomats See Soviet
Maneuver 10 Delay
Troops Withdrawal
BY the Asseciated Press

A Russian maneuver to keep Soviet
armies spread over Eastern Europe
as long as possible is being predicted
privately by diplomatic authorities
here despite the progress on peace
making at Paris.
Failure Of the Russians to follow
such a line, it is said, would mark
a major change in Kremlin foreign
policy, and would ease tensions
among the great powers far more
than is expected as things now
stand.
The withdrawal of occupation
armies as early as possible is known
to be one of the objectives of Secre-
tary of State Byrnes. One of the
reasons Mr.. Byrnes has been in haste
to lay down peace treaties with Ro-
mania. Hungary, Bulgaria and Fin
land this summer is his expressed
belief that this would be the first
step toward getting Russian armies
out of those countries.
The logical next steps in that
Byrnes' program would be conclu-
sion of peace treaty with Austria
and review of German occupation
problems which have a bearing on
the number of Russian troops in
Poland.
Some information reaching Wash
ington is that the issue of occupation
armies already is taking form. Mr.
Byrnes is reported by some infor-
mants to favor an agreement among
the big powers that occupation
troops would be withdrawn from
country about three months after
the peace treaty had been signed.
Favors Later Withdrawal
Foreign Minister Molotov, on the
other hand, repeatedly favors max
Ing ratification of the treaty the
critical point by which to fix the
deadline for troop removals. Since
months or even years may elapse
between the time that a treaty is
signed and the time that it is
ratified by all the signatories Gin
the United States it would have
to be first approved by the Senate),
Mr.. Molotov's proposal would give
Russia much greater leeway in
maintaining troops in other coun-
tries.
The total of these troops is now
estimated by some authorities here
as at least 100000 men, possibly
considerably more
The Red Army forces in Ger
many, according to these estimates
number about 600, 900 and to main
tain lines of communication to
them across Poland, the Russians
have 350,O00 soldiers in Poland.
These figures do not include such
troops as they might have in
transit, say in Czechoslovakia,
where recently they shifted con-
siderable forces.
To the south, the Russians have
upwards of 100000 soldiers in Aus
tria and on the claim that supply
lines to these have to be maintained
across intervening Balkan countries
they have about 100000 troops in
ex-enemy areas in the Balkans
possibly many more.
Rumors Flood Balkans.
Their military activities in Yugo-
slavia and Albania, friendly nations
tightly held to Russia by their Com
munist governments, are a subject
OF many rumors and reports, but
practically no officially and publicly
confirmed information.
The view of top American Gov
ernment officials is that the num-
Der of troops which the Russians
are maintaining in Poland is far
greater than they need to supply
their German forces. The same
thing applies to the troops they
have theoretically along their COM
munication lines to Austria.
In addition to the Russian troops
In Europe, the United States and
Britain and France have occupation
forces III Germany and Austria and
Anglo-American units, theoretically
at least, are deployed in Italy to
keep open supply line to Austria
Their deployment puts them in the
position of guarding the Italian bor-
der in the Trieste area, but it is ex-
pected that in one way or another
peace and quiet will be restored to |
that area soon and officials here
express hope that settlement of oc-
cupation issues will permit with
draWal Of troops from both Austria |
and Italy perhaps by the end of this
year.