Stalin on Peace and War Public declarations by M. Stalin,
the, effective head of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, are sufficiently rare to lend considerable importance to the statements made by him to Mr. Roy Howard in an interview pub- lished in this country on Wednesday. His views as a whole are less alarmist than the first headlines would suggest. 'M. Stalin, it is true, pointed to Germany and Japan as the two danger-points; but there is nothing particularly original in that. His emphatic declaration as to the steps Russia would take if the Outer Mongolian Republic were attacked by Japan may have the effect either of a provocation or of a salutary warning. The latter is at least as likely as the former. What is more striking, coming from The head of the greatest military power in the world,- is M. Stalin's conviction that " the position of the friends of peace is improving," thanks to the League of Nations (another rather unexpected tribute) and the assistance of a powerful public opinion. It is no doubt true that Russia herself contemplates aggression nowhere, and has abandoned all idea of trying to spread Communist .doctrines outside her borders by force. Stalin him-self fought that battle out with Trotsky as long ago as 1923 * *
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