Personal Opinion

Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov, pudgy, cagey head of the Russian Communist Party's Agitprop (Agitation & Propaganda) Committee, is generally regarded as the heir-apparent to Dictator Stalin's job. He became next in line when a bullet removed the original runner-up, Stalin's "Dear Friend" Sergei Mironovich Kirov. The idea that Heir-Apparent Zhdanov can have a personal opinion about anything not shared by the Kremlin would make even dour Comrade Stalin laugh.

Last week readers of Pravda were treated to this joke in a front-page spread of Comrade Zhdanov's "personal opinion" that the Anglo-Soviet pact negotiations are deadlocked, that France and Britain are deliberately dragging them out in order to have an excuse for making a pact with Germany. Wrote Tovarich Zhdanov archly: Some friends disagree. One friend who obviously did not disagree was "Dear Friend" Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili Stalin, who took this typical way of prodding on the plodding powwows.

Main stumbling-block in the Anglo-Soviet talks from the start has been Russia's insistence that Britain specifically guarantee Estonia, Latvia and Finland against German aggression. Last week Fuehrer Hitler appeared in the singular role of playing Stalin's game for him as the British Government, alarmed over the Danzig situation, was reported virtually to have conceded every Russian demand. Concessions were: 1) Specific military guarantees to the Baltic States; 2) Anglo-French-Russian staff consultations before the alliance becomes effective; 3) specific pledges by Britain and France not to make a separate peace during war, leave Russia holding the bag. Sole outstanding issue left to quibble over was Russia's demand that the Baltic States also be guaranteed against a change of internal regime, i. e. Nazification. If the pact reports proved true and the Anglo-Russian Pact is at last to be signed, it could mean just one thing: this time Britain is in a fighting mood.

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