FRENCH-SOVIET RELATIONS NEARING A BREAK? A Wednesday Associated Press story says that diplomatic relations between France and Soviet Russia “appeared to have reached the breaking point,” following an incident involving the Soviet ambassador to Paris, Jakob Surits. Reportedly, Ambassador Surits provoked French government anger by sending a telegram to Soviet Premier Molotov saluting the Red Army’s success in Finland, which the Ambassador said thwarted “plans of the Anglo-French warmongers who attempted to fan the flames of war in northwest Europe.” France has responded by demanding that the Russians recall Ambassador Surits, and they have done so.
The A.P. reports that “several newspapers in Paris are urging the government to close the Soviet embassy...and the campaign to to break off diplomatic relations with Russia is gaining headway.” Then again, the A.P. adds that relations may have already been effectively broken -- “Informed sources considered it unlikely that the French government would approve the nomination of any Soviet envoy as successor to the recalled ambassador. Paul Naggier, the French ambassador to Russia, has already left his post, having returned to Paris ostensibly on sick leave.”
It’s been two months since the French government banned the Communist Party as a subversive organization, and Premier Reynaud declared to the Chamber of Deputies just last Friday that Germany has been “aided by the treason of the Soviets.” Since Stalin is likely to launch new aggressions soon, against Finland or in the Balkans, it now looks likelier than ever this year that either the Allies will end up fighting a “white war” against Russia, or Stalin will actually join the shooting war on Hitler’s side.
BRITISH DEMAND “RUTHLESS WAR” ON HITLER. Larry Rue reports in Tuesday’s Chicago Tribune that Britain’s newspapers are demanding the Allies take bolder steps in fighting the war. Mr. Rue quotes the military expert from the Daily Sketch as explaining this means “we should either violate somebody’s neutrality or begin to bomb German oil supplies and industries.” Not too long ago British strategists believed that if the Allies maintained a passive blockade, they would break Germany over time. But now, says Mr. Rue, a Sunday Times’ analysis warns darkly of “the possibility of Hitler refusing to wage a military war and relying on the hope that prolonged hostilities will ruin England and France financially and force them to capitulate thru economic pressure.” Now, says Britain’s press, “time is working more for Germany than for the western powers and that quick, decisive action is necessary to break the deadlock and give them the advantage.”
Britain’s papers are also debating various suggestions to protect Rumania from German pressure, including using the Empire’s wealth to insure the Rumanians always have a better offer for their products from the Allies than from Germany. Other sources, Mr. Rue reports, “advocated repeated air raids on German industrial areas, especially the huge synthetic petroleum plants at Leuna. They maintain that Germany would be unable to retaliate, owing to a lack of fuel, and would become a victim of same kind of blitzkrieg [lightning war] she conducted against Poland.” It sounds good -- but not anything like the kind of action the Chamberlain government, as now constituted, would dare take.
ALLIES VIOLATING NEUTRAL SKIES? But according to last night’s broadcast by C.B.S. Berlin correspondent William Shirer, Nazi sources claim the Allies are already getting cavalier about violating neutrals’ rights. Specifically, the German high command claims Allied planes have recently flown over the territory of Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg, and Switzerland. Somewhat ominously, the story exploded into banner headlines in the controlled Nazi press on Wednesday, and Reporter Shirer concludes delicately that the high command “will not remain content forever” to merely note the alleged violations. It's likely these charges say more about German intentions in the coming weeks than they do about anything the Allies are up to.
WESTERN FRONT TO STAY CALM? But then, maybe the Germans don’t have any big plans at all. In addition to the report from Paris last week in the New Republic that Hitler isn’t planning anything big until 1941, the Chicago Tribune reports on Tuesday that “Paris observers” now don’t expect any major German offensive soon --
“Altho the war is about to enter its eighth month and opinion in Great Britain and France insists that it be prosecuted with increasing energy, observers here do not expect any change on the western front for a long time to come. The problem of the British and French is held to be to induce or compel their enemy to make a rash attack. Two means to this end are seen -- to make the blockade effective or to organize a coalition of countries, or both. It is felt here [in Paris] that Hitler will attack neither the Maginot line nor the army in the near east until he has been forced to play his last card -- decision by battle.”
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