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The Military Mission to Russia.
The announcement in the House of Commons on the last day of
July that British and French military representatives were to go to Moscow at once, to open military conversations with the Soviet authorities, was regarded by members of all parties in Great Britain as a most hopeful sign. It showed a growing confidence
among the Governments of the three countries concerned that the
"peace-front" would be secured.
When the diplomatic conversations were opened in Moscow some
weeks ago, it was hoped that an agreement would soon be reached.
That hope was doomed to disappointment. Various difficulties and
obstacles had to be cleared away. The problem of "indirect
aggression" seemed almost insuperable.
to all parties could not be reached.
A definition satisfactory
An arrangement was therefore made to begin military convers-
ations with Soviet Russia before a political agreement was arrived at - an arrangement, said Mr. Neville Chamberlain, the Prime
Minister, which must be almost without precedent.
The Russian
Minister for Foreign Affairs had expressed the view that, if military conversations were held, the political difficulties should not prove insuperable, so it was hoped that an agreement both in
subject and form would be concluded.
It may be taken therefore that all parties to the discussion
consider that the substance of agreement is secured, and that a combination of Powers aiming at peaceful development, and opposed to the power politics of aggressor nations, will check the present drift towards war as a solution of the present tangle in European
affairs.
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