Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Leonas Sabaliunas “Lithuania in Crisis” p.151

Published in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited, Don Mills, Ontario, 1972.

Russia Moves West

THE NEWS the Lithuanian Minister in Moscow brought home on September 30 was received in Kaunas with a cautious optimism. Ladas Natkevicius presented his Foreign Minister with an invitation from the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars to visit the Kremlin to discuss matters of mutual interest that had arisen as a result of recent events in Eastern Europe. The government complied, and by October 3 Foreign Minister Juozas Urbsys was on his way to Moscow.

Reluctant to predict what lay ahead, Lietuvos Aidas (see Lietuvos Aidas , October 3, 1939, p.1.) merely observed in general terms that conditions in Eastern Europe had changed during preceding month. Consequently, it had become necessary to review the new situation. The Catholic organ similarly declined to speculate on the sum and substance of talks with the “new Russia.” It expressed assurances that the Lithuanian delegation would do everything humanly possible to guard the nation’s liberty and hoped for the best:

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