The Pittsburgh Press (April 20, 1941)
RUSSIA TURNED DOWN BID TO JOIN AXIS, REDS SAY
By Henry Shapiro, United Press staff writer
Moscow, April 19 –
Russia was revealed today to have rejected a bid to join the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis five months ago. At the same time, foreign suggestions that relations between Germany and the Soviet have deteriorated were ridiculed by the Communist Party newspaper, Pravda.
Revelation that the Soviet was invited to sign up in the Axis and convert the three-power military alliance into a four-power pact was made in the course of a lengthy analysis by Pravda of foreign comment on the signature of the Russo-Japanese neutrality pact.
The Russian radio and press reported today, without comment, the German communiqué reporting the capitulation of the Yugoslav Army. No Soviet reaction could be obtained.
However, there was reaction to reports by Dōmei, official Japanese news agency, of tension and massing of troops along the Russo-Iranian border.
Iranian sources said that relations are not only friendly but “better than normal” and that trade between the two countries is on the increase.
The Soviet, it was said, recently has given Iran the right to send goods in transit to Sweden and Finland and has sold Iran a quantity of wheat.
These sources had no knowledge of any special concentration of troops on the frontier but said it would be natural for the Soviet to maintain “adequate defenses” in the region because of the nearness of the Baku oil fields and the pipeline to Batumi.