As Russia Sees It
Mr. Henry Wallace, the Vice-President of the United States, in a speech last Monday named a number of conditions which must
be satisfied if we are to avoid World War No. 3. Among other things, if we would avert such a calamity, we on our part, he said, must deal honestly and fairly with Russia and be helpful as she works out her economic problems ; and equally she on her part would have to refrain from fomenting world-wide revolution. There is every reason for hoping that the Soviet Government and the people of Russia will more and more realise the desire of the American and British people to co-operate with them in the future as well as now ; but there are some things which,. according to Admiral William Standley, the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union, the people of Russia do not yet know simply because they have not been told—for example, the vast quantity of American aid sent to Russia. The Ambassador said frankly the other day that wider publicity among the Soviet people about the supplies reaching their front would ease the task of the Washington administration in maintaining Lend-Lease aid at the maximum quantity, and added that the Soviets were trying to create the impression that they are fighting the war alone. The wisdom of such an assertion is doubtful. Admiral Standley is not a professional diplomat and his statement has been severely criticised in America. But the Russians do not appear to have resented it. Indeed, they promptly responded by broadcasting Mr. Edward Stettinius' speech giving statistics of American supplies to Russia. But what Russia wants much more than supplies is a Second Front in Europe.
