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From The Militant, Vol. V No. 17, 26 April 1941, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The Battle of the Balkans is drawing steadily toward its appointed end – a new Dunkerque for the British on the shores of the Aegean. The hasty move of British forces into Irak shows that the British have already discounted the defection of Turkey. Britain’s Suez “lifeline” will be defended in Western Egypt and at Turkey’s frontier.
Meanwhile whatever developments were planned by the Axis strategists to follow upon the conclusion of the Soviet-Japanese pact are evidently awaiting the further course of the Mediterranean campaign. The week that has passed since the pact was signed in Moscow has been marked chiefly by the confirmation in Moscow that the pact accorded with the Axis strategy dictated by Adolf Hitler.
Pravda, Stalin’s newspaper mouthpiece made it plain on April 19 that the pact was to be regarded as a blow at Britain and the United States by virtue of the new “solid foundation for development of friendly relations between the two states” – the Soviet Union and Japan.
From Chungking came reports that the Kremlin had “assured” the Chinese that aid to China would continue as before – i.e., in the same slow trickle. The well-informed N.Y. Times correspondent said that the Chinese Stalinists were “stunned” by the pact and refused to believe it could possibly mean any change in their own anti-Japanese policy. The United Press quoted a Chinese Stalinist spokesman as saying that his party’s aim was still the reconquest of Manchuria, where the Kremlin has given recognition to Japan’s “special position.”
But whatever is done to cover up the fact that Stalin, has struck a deal with the imperialist invaders of China, the damage is effectively done.
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Last updated: 3 November 2015