"MOLOTOV" PLAN TO OUTBID MARSHALL

Chronicle (Levin), 20 August 1947, Page 5

"MOLOTOV" PLAN TO OUTBID MARSHALL

LONDON, August 18. Russia's recent agreements with countries in her sphe-e of interest, have aroused a good deal of attention. Half a dozen agreements, all eoniing witlnn a fortnight of the rejection of the Marshall plan, can hardly be a coincidenee, it is reniarked by a correspondent of the Manchester (iuardian. Asking _ whether there is the beginnings of a "Molotov" plan designed to outbid the Marshall olfer, he says that in the last analysis the cqneeption of the self-contained eastern econqinic bloc sufl'ers from a t'undamental weakness. It wouid be .entred on Soviet Russia which is economically more backward than some of its satellites. It would be unable to supply the bloc's requirements in capital and equipment and to absorb in excliange a surplus of high quality food. ITndoubtedly, it is statdd, Russia can, if she chooses, use political means to livert the trade production and development of her satellites from the direction that eorresponds to their resources and needs. She may even reap some short term benefit from doing so by lixing the prices of goods to be exchanged under her bilateral agreements, to her own advantage. But it is. none the 'less clear that sueh aetion would hamper the econoinic recovery of these. countries and may well drag down their standardS of living to her own. As a constructive approach, serving the interests of Russia's security zone, the "Molotov" 'ilan for a closed eastern eeonomic blo'c does liot stand up to a critical examin ation, it is stated.