ANSWER TO RUSSIA
THE reply of the Western Powers to the Soviet Note on a peace treaty with Germany is a well-drafted document. It is commendably brief, commendably clear, commend- . ably firm. At the same time it is entirely conciliatory in tone, making no attempt to score debating-points—as it well might have done over the contrast between the Soviet Union's attitude towards a peace treaty with Germany and its attitude towards a peace treaty with Austria. It is satisfactory that the German Chancellor should have taken part in ,the dis- cussions on the text of the Note and, by all accounts, found so few changes to suggest. While the Note makes the position of the Allies unmistakably clear it leaves the door studiously open to a Russian rejoinder which might conceivably advance negotiation by a step or two; more rapid advance than that is hardly to be hoped for. The first step, incontestably, must be completely free and --secret elections throughout Germany, under adequate supervision, not necessarily, though preferably, that of the United Nations. If that were conceded by Russia everything else could wait, and a great deal would inevitably follow. The stipulation regarding this is the cardinal feature of the Allied Note. Russia's reply to it will indicate clearly whether her Note was a serious move towards peace or a purely tactical move designed to tempt Western Germany to keep aloof from the European Defence Community. Fortun- ately there is little prospect of that happening. Certainly the negotiations regarding it must not be checked for a moment by the Russian demarche. The Allied Powers have been right in stating plainly that there will be such check.
