ABSTRACT
The chief fact which slowly acquired general recognition during the interminable international negotiations of the years 1945 to 1947 was that, in all respects save one, the U.S.S.R. was, after all, a typical Great Power like the others. It was gradually revealed, however, that the governing factor in Soviet policy was less that it had a Communist ideology than that it was a true-to-type sovereign state concerned with its own political and economic advantage, and determined to protect its security by whatever means it thought fit. The House of Commons tended to agree that Bevin was entitled to be resentful about the Russians, though, as this extract illustrates, his injured feelings were expressed with scant regard for the rules of sentence construction. The deeper intent of the speech, however, was to make one more appeal for the United States to interest itself in Europe such as he had been making ever since 1940.
