The London newspapers of Tuesday. August 22nd (except the Communist Daily Worker, which was busy ringing Moscow) reported with astonishment the announcement from Berlin that Germany and Russia had negotiated a non-aggression pact, and that Herr von Ribbentrop, the German Foreign Minister, was flying at once to Moscow for the formal signature of the Treaty. This announcement. which came immediately after the completion of a trade agreement between the two Governments, was confirmed by the official Russian Tass News Agency in the following terms:
After the conclusion of the Soviet- German trade and credit agreement there arose the problem of improving political relations between Germany and the USSR.An exchange of views on this subject. which took place between the Government of Germany and the USSR, established that both parties desire to relieve the tension in their political relations, eliminate the war menace, and conclude a non-aggression pact.Consequently, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, von Ribbentrop. will arrive in Moscow in a few days for corresponding negotiations. (Evening Standard, August 22nd. 1939.)
The Pact was duly signed in Moscow on August 23. thus realising a possibility suggested in these columns more than once.
[From an editorial "Birds of a Feather: The Russo-German Bombshell", Socialist Standard, September 1939.]
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