ANGLO-RUSSIAN TRADE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18198, 19 March 1921, Page 8

ANGLO-RUSSIAN TRADE.

Aftee negotiations so protracted as to extend over many months it has been officially announced that a trade agreement has been signed by representatives of Great Britain and the Soviet Government of .Russia. The agreement will, in all probability, be the subject of sharp controversy. Already it raises several, interesting and delicate questions which in the future will re<}uire very careful consideration. Id the lengthy and difficult negotiations—made doubly difficult ■by the ■ absence of a correct sense of international, probity on the part of several Soviet representatives and the peculiar standards of honour which the, Soviet Government itself observes—it was recognised that the consummation of a trade agreement virtually meant peace with Russia. While we were not exactly at war with Russia neither were we at peaci, mainly for the reason that Soviet emissaries were bent on creating trouble, especially in India and Afghanis-, tan. “It is i not easy to make peace \ with Russia,** said Mr Lloyd George “The* Government of Russia itself makes it difficult. It does not' command confidence. It breaks pledges. It makes a pretence of making peace and then insidiously takes advantage of it to try to poison the atmosphere of your own country. I am profoundly sorry for it, because I want peace. The government of Russia is a matter for Russia itself, but the government of Britain is a matter for Britain itself.” •Even now, when the agreement has been signed, it will not be surprising if the Soviet Government 'fails to keep its bargain. It is dominated by peculiar ideas of right and wrong. Doubtless, moreover, it still believes its mission to bo the spread of world revolution. As events 1 have more than once plainly shown, it was exceedingly dangerous to give such men as are at -its head "the honoured standing of friendship. Even

now grave questions have to be settled. The Soviet Government’s policy of confiscation was an off epee against all moral standards, and some of the gold with which it is proposed to pay for British goods, as well as some of the ‘goods which it will exchange for other goods, do not morally belong to it. M. Krassin himself seems to realise that this question is an important element in the success or failure of the agreement. While it is necessarily a question which may have to be settled by the courts the morality of the transactions cannot be wholly disregarded by statesmen. There is, however, ample evidence of caution on the part orthos© who have conducted the British part of the bargain, and in this as in many other international problems those representatives doubtless found it necessary to make the best of an awkward situation. •,

International peace 'is an indispensable prelude to complete reconstruction, and international trade must sooner or later be re-established. Complete normality is impossible without these conditions. Along with other considerations this has, it may be conjectured, finally weighed with the British Government. The objections to this new agreement are substantial and real, but there are also certain definite and mutual advantages that will flow from it. The most severe test of Bolshevism in Russia will come when it faces “the deadly peril of being unthreatened by any invader,” and the present counterrevolution considerably strengthens this view. At the moment no outside menace threatens Russia, but the internal discontent arising from misgovernment has oulminated in a serious uprising. It is not a small achievement to have ended the insidious official Bolshevist propaganda against British rule in India and Afghanistan—if we may trust the Soviet in the measure in which the trade agreement accomplishes this purpose as well as that of ending official Soviet propaganda within the Empire itself. From a purely" commercial point of view the agreement should he mutually advantageous and not wholly profitless to this dominion. In pre-war times Russia was a fairly good customer for New Zealand goods, buying wool in addition to other products. It is therefore quite possible that the trade agreement may to some extent ease the financial situation with regard to wool. As it was imperative that trade relationships with Russia must sooner or later he resumed, it is perhaps as. well that the attempt, should now he made. Jf w© judge the Soviet Government and its representatives on their past conduct the prospects are not unclouded nor is the future free from anxiety, but wo have faith enough in British statesmanship to in face of an" awkward situation the best has been done in the interests of the Empire and of the rehabilitation of the world’s commerce.