CAB129-78 — Page 237

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did not like that item in one of my speeches in which I said certain circles untied Hitler's hands to launch the war against the Soviet Union. But this is an historical fact. Could Hitler have started the war if he had been confronted with the united forces of England, France, the Soviet Union and other countries? If the ruling circles of England and France of that time had wished to hold Hitler back and to prevent war, they would have prevented the occupation of Austria by Hitler and could not have agreed to the shameful Munich agreements.

"Towards the end of his speech, Mr. Khrushchev referred to the wartime co-operation between the allies. He said: The struggle was hard, but our united allied armies, fighting for the bright future of humanity, for its freedom and independence against bloody Hitlerism, won their greatest victory. This experience of our common fight for a mutual cause had a tremendous significance. The Second World War proved that the British, French, American and Soviet peoples can be the best of friends not only during good times, but during a time of most severe and hard ordeal.

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Mr. Khrushchev also said that he would ask British journalists why they were offended when the facts of the past' were recalled.

"Russia has never waged wars against England,' he declared, 'But the English have attacked our country in the past as well as in the Soviet era. It would be enough to refer to the war of Sebastopol (the Crimea War of 1854-56). At that time we Russians did not invite the English to the Crimea so that they could destroy our Russian people on Russian soil. We can also recall British intervention against our Motherland during the Civil War (after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917). At that time when our Soviet Republic was being strengthened, British troops occupied Archangel.'

Daily Telegraph report, 7th December:-

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"He repeated the charge that the Allies started the last war. He embellished it by adding that the bloodhound' (Nazi Germany) which the ruling circles in Britain, France and the United States were feeding up to set free against the Soviet Union, broke loose and attacked them instead. Are not the same countries using the same methods to try to push Western Germany on the path to war and new adventure?' he asked."

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Soviet Version

B.B.C. Monitor of Moscow Radio transmitting a Tass report in Russian for abroad, 6th December:-

"The colonisers cannot reconcile themselves to the loss of their position in South-East Asia and in the Pacific and refuse to recognise the changes which have taken place in the lives of the peoples of the former colonies and subject States, who have embarked on the path of independent development. Their interference in the domestic affairs of Korea and Indo-China was marked by bloody wars which have made of this part of the world a cockpit for a new war. Thanks to the collective efforts of the peace-loving States, upheld by world public opinion, it was possible to end hostilities in Korea and China. .

"A gang of Chiang Kai-shek bandits has entrenched itself on your territory perpetrating all kinds of acts of banditry. I think that it is unlikely that this gang would have held out so long had it not been helped by certain of Burma's foes. But whatever the colonisers may do they will not hold on to places whence they have been driven by the people who have rallied under the banner of national independence.

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Some people, however, have taken a strong exception to our visit to India and Burma; they did not like our speeches and frank statements. But we have always spoken, and now speak, the truth. And truth is frequently not to everyone's liking. There is

There is a national saying:

national saying: Truth stings the eyes." That is why certain organs of the British Press have reacted with irritation to my statements and those of Comrade Bulganin in India. They took particular exception to that part in one of my speeches in which I said that certain circles untied Hitler's hands in the war against the Soviet Union. That, however, is an historical fact. Could Hitler have started a war if he had been faced by the united forces of Britain, France, the Soviet Union and other countries? If the then ruling circles of

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