Progress at Moscow There seems to be good reason to
believe that the pro- tracted Moscow talks are at last nearing a satisfactory conclusion. The two outstanding obstacles were till recently understood to be Russia's desire for military (and naval and air) Staff talks, and an undertaking against " indirect " aggression through the Baltic States. The former appears now to have been conceded, and it is stated that General Sir Edmund Ironside for Britain and General Doumenc for France, with naval and air officers of high rank, will soon be in Moscow. That guarantee of Anglo-French good faith may induce M. Molotoff to become a little less exact- ing in the matter of the Baltic States. Russia's anxieties in those quarters are intelligible, but it is very difficult for this country to go so far as to agree that the creation of a totalitarian Government in Latvia or Estonia would be a development justifying external intervention. We cannot make it our business to dictate what form of constitution any independent State shall have. But if all the parties concerned want a settlement it is certainly not beyond the resources of diplomacy to devise a formula which shall assure Russia of our sincerity without causing the Baltic States, which strongly object to being guaranteed, to feel that their wishes are being overridden.
