The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-01-29
Comment On
World Events

/ A detailed story Of the Nazi-
Soviet partnership, prior to the
Nazi attack on Russia in 1871, has
been told. 1t is high time. The
world should have known the facts
before, the better to understand
the present world situation.
! The story has been known in it,
outlines for some years and many
Of the facts have been told in For
eign Affairs, the New Leader, in
James f. Byrnes' recent book and
other publications but the hitherto
secret German documents, made
public by the State Department,
set forth the picture comprehen-
sively for the first time. To say
that the documents reveal skele-
tons in the Soviet closet is to put
it mildly. They show a whole flock
of skeletons, rafting their bones
in way the Communist propagan-
dists will find hard to explain.
To mention few: Russia gave
material and moral support to the
Hitler war machine, even to the
extent that Foreign Minister Molo-
tov wished Complete success" to
the German attack on France and
little Denmark and Norway in the
spring of 1910. And when Germany
had overrun neutral Holland and
Belgium, Molotov expressed his
governments "warmest congratula-
tions" on "the splendid success of
the German armed forces" Seven
days before the German attack on
Poland, Premier Stain and Hitler's
foreign minister, Won Ribbintrop,
agreed on the partition of Poland,
as we'll as on the fate of Finland
and the Baltic countries Of Estonia,
Latvia and Lithuania.
There are 260 documents printed
in 357 pages of text. They begin
with the first suggestion of Alexei
Merekalov, the Soviet ambassador
to Germany, April II, 1899, that
GermanSoviet relations might "be-
come better and BETTER" and end
with the German declaration Of war
against Russia of June %, 1941.
Perhaps among the most inter-
esting of the documents, in view of
the present status of Poland as
Russian puppet state, are those
showing Russia's treachery to Po-
land in 1889 as the Germans began
the attack that plunged the whole
world into war.
Won der Schulenberg, the Ger
man ambassador to Moscow, told
Hitler on Sept. 6, how the Soviet
machine, busy then as
now, had been reversed in favor of
Germany. On Sept. 9, Molotov con-
graduated the German government |
on the entry of Nazi troops into
Warsaw. On Sept. 9, "Stalin said,
somewhat suddenly" there were
doubts that the Germans would |
stop on the river line, as agreed |
to in the pact for dividing Poland |
On the Goth, Stain proposed to do
away with Poland entirely and won
a territorial revision, whereby Ger
many gave up her claim to all but |
a small strip of Lithuania and was
allowed a larger share of Polish |
territory. These are some of the
revelations on German Russian de-
'truction of unhappy Poland.
Altogether the documents make
l sordid story of betrayal and
iouble dealing. They confirm be-
Jond doubt the charge that both
Hitler and Stain were buddies in
reachery and aggression and that
heir virtual alliance gave the sig
lal for the start of World War III.
As the New York Times said of
he partnership:
"The relationship which these
documents reveal in those critical i
md history-shaping years is that
# two mutually suspicious and /
but equally cynical and
governments matching H
Wits while they plotted a division
f power in Eastern Europe in the
vent of a war which had not yet
egun the certainty of which was
ealed by their maneuvers."