ABSTRACT
Similarly, in matters of foreign policy, account is taken of the realities of the situation and, above all, of the fact that, in the present state of the Red army, of the Soviet economic system and of Soviet transport, the Soviet Union should avoid intervention in a conflict of capitalistic powers. Thus, while M. Stalin and various other speakers at the Congress emphasise Soviet readiness to defend the frontiers of the Soviet Union, should they be attacked, the line taken by all of them is that the chief care of those responsible for Soviet foreign policy must be to prevent the Soviet Union from being dragged into the struggle now in progress between the Fascist states and the so-called democracies. M. Stalin did, of course, say that the Soviet Union would be prepared to support all peoples who had been the victims of aggression and who were fighting for their national independence. This, however, may merely imply that the Soviet Government would be prepared, as in the case of China and Republican Spain, to provide assistance in the form of war material, provisions and technical help, after aggression was in full swing. Those innocents at home who believe that Soviet Russia is only awaiting an invitation to join the Western democracies should be advised to ponder M. Stalin’s advice to his party:
‘To be cautious and not allow Soviet Russia to be drawn into conflicts by warmongers who are accustomed to have others pull the chestnuts out of the fire.’
