Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎5v] (10/978)

Another agreement reached between the
Polish Government and the Western
Powers was that signed on the 31st October
between Poland and the British and
American Zones of Germany. [An agree
ment with the Russian Zone was signed
about one year ago.] Poland will receive
German chemicals and other goods in
exchange for food, chiefly vegetables and
potatoes; she has undertaken to supply at
once 50,00*0 tons of potatoes, to be paid for
in cash. Subsequent transactions will be at
prices to be fixed later.
SOVIET UNION
The Military Attache to the British
Embassy in Moscow was detained for
several hours in a factory An East India Company trading post. on the outskirts
of Moscow on the 30th October on a charge
of having taken photographs of this
factory An East India Company trading post. . He was arrested by a factory An East India Company trading post.
watchman, and during the period of his
detention his identity card was impounded.
He did not have a camera in his possession,
and he offered to be searched in order to
show that he possessed no camera, but this
offer was refused. This incident was the
subject of a letter under the signatures of
four of the factory An East India Company trading post. workmen, published in
Pravda (the 3rd November). Ignoring the
fact that the General was not carrying a
camera, the workmen asserted that he
photographed a Moscow factory An East India Company trading post. , causing
“ deep indignation to the workers.” They
concluded their apparently inspired
remarks with the question : “ Do not cer
tain foreign diplomats in their activities
in Moscow attempt to use the same means
which, according to the latest reports from
Roumania, their colleagues are using so
widely in the Balkans?” Some days later
General Hilton, impersonated by the popu
lar artist Caran d'Ache attired in tattered
sheepskin jacket and worker’s boots and
carrying a pair of binoculars, was featured
in Moscow Circus’s special birthday pro
gramme. On the day following the incident
the Military Attache had an interview with
General Ilya M. Saraev, Head of the
Department of External Relations of the
Ministry of the Armed Forces, with the
object of clearing up this matter satisfac
torily. This official not only refrained from
expressing regret at the incident, but pro
fessed himself unable to do more than
report General Hilton’s denial of the
charge brought against him.
It should be pointed out in connection
with Generalissimo Stalin’s recent expres
sion to the British Labour Mi.P.s of his
interest in the development of Anglo-
Soviet trade, that the Soviet official atti
tude to this important matter as reflected
in the latest official conversations in Mos
cow, did not hold out any encouraging
prospects of reaching a mutually advan
tageous solution of outstanding difficulties
in the near future. It would appear fiw
M. Mikoyan’s statement to Mr. Roberts an
the 6th October that the Soviet Govern
ment are not at present prepared to accept
any financial settlement less favourable to
themselves than their own proposals over
which the negotiations last summer broke
down (see Summary No. 402, the 30th July,
1947). We are considering ways and means
of reopening trade talks on a purely busi
ness basis.
The Soviet attitude to Palestine seems
primarily dictated by the desire to debar
both the Americans and ourselves from
strategic positions in the Eastern Mediter
ranean. The best method of achieving this
object may well seem to the Kremlin to lie
in encouraging partition since either party
is thereafter likely to resent and oppose the
establishment of bases in the territory of
the other. The Soviet Government no
doubt also have in mind the possibilities
offered by continued unrest in Palestine as
affecting the whole Middle East area.
From this point of view they might well
have considered that an out-and-out
Zionist solution would have been prefer
able, were it not for the certainty that
any Zionist state in Palestine will begin
under American auspices.
The Soviet line about the work of the
Austrian Treaty Commission was recently
summarised for the Soviet public by Kras
naya Zvezda (the 25th October) in an
article “ Who profits from the delay in
solving the Austrian problem?” accusing
the American and British delegations of
having done everything possible to disrupt
the Commission’s work. In view of the
Soviet Delegation’s consistently unco
operative attitude in this work, its seizures
of Austrian property and its unremitting
obstruction of the Anglo-American efforts
to reach agreement about a Peace Treaty
with Austria, this article is a good
example of the contempt for truth shown
by Soviet propaganda. It had become
clear, alleged Krasnaya Zvezda, that Great
Britain and the United States wished to
evade the Potsdam decisions, to oppose the
interests of Allied countries which had
every right to reparations and to preserve
a dominating position in Austrian economy
for their own monopolies. Krasnaya
Zvezda further complained that British
and American representatives insisted that