The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 12th, 1925. TRADE WITH RUSSIA.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 March 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 12th, 1925. TRADE WITH RUSSIA.

A ct.kar review why Britain (or any other country) will find it difficult to trade with Russia, lias been given in a London pnpe.r by Mr W. A. Appleten, the secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions. Wo do not know whether Mr Appleton accompanied the British Labor delegation to Russia, but his official position WO'dd give him phe opportunity to obtain first h a nd froni these wild did. eireum.

stantial details of what was gleaned. Be that as it may, -Mr Appleton reviews the position very temperately and logically, as the following resume of his remarks makes clear: Trade with Hu.ssia 'i By all means. Trade with anybody, he writes. That is the mental attitude of every Englisl in who concerns himself with the industrial and economic needs of lii.s own people. Trade, however, means exchange, either of commodities or their recognised equivalents. It implies, among other things, willingness and ability to pay, either in goods, cash, or services, for every commodity or consideration received. Transferring goods from one person, or from one country, to another without ensuring the return of balancing equivalents is not trade—it is charity. For several years Great Britain has been exhorted to trade with Russia. In the immediate future those exhortations may be intensified, and in order to avoid misconceptions it is desirable to deni ,uistrate clearly Great Britain’s desire to develop this trade. It is just as desirable that the British and the Russians should understand what trading really means. Trading involves credit as well as cash, and sometimes it is necessary for an individual, anxious to push the sale of commodities, to give long credit. Nations may have to follow the same practice, hut neither individual nor natiion is under any compulsion tr continue the delivery of goods on credit to defaulting or discredited customers. 'Russia has little cash and she has recklessly prejudiced Imr credit. For many years before the war she borrowed large sums for internal development.’ Huge debts were accumulated. These her revolutionary Government have repudiated, and by their actions have placed their country very much in the position of a trade union member whose union, during; a. period of exceptional industrial difficulty, pledged its credit on its memliors’ behalf, only to find later that he has repudiated the debt and left the union. Such a member would expect opposition to future attempts to obtain employment. Ethically and nationally speaking Russia may lie considered to he in a worse position than an undischarged bankrupt. The latter lias ad | nutted his liabilities, and perhaps madesome pretence of restitution. In hicase, too, there is the. possibility, sometimes remote, hut still existing, of an ultimate recovery and’ payment in full. The Russian revolutionaries, unfortunately for the Russian and other peoples, ignored both the rights of their creditors and their own capacity for recovery. They committed the grave ibusinetfp error of repudiating debts instead of arranging compositions which would have lcl't- debtor and creditor free, to continue business. Their conduct has involved their own peonlo in ghastly miseries and the people c other countries in serious loss and continued disadvantage. With ihe.se very obvious results before them other countries, while perfectly -ready to open real trading accounts, may hesitate to open and guarantee new loan accounts. Kxpcrience is schoolmaster to all of us, and experience emphasises the undesirability of extending credit to a debtor who, in addition to wholesale repudiation, insists upon political tornmlae which ignore the right of the individual either to own goods or to trade with them. Russia has resources in abundance. To hear Mr Purcell and his colleagues discoursing on the wealth in the' Ural .Mountains is to invite visions beside which those enjoyed by Aladdin are just colourless chimera. Indeed, they appear to protest too vehemently for their own purposes, for if their descriptions of wealth, existing and potential, arc accurate, Russia can, given time, pay all her. debts four times over. Unfortunately, these undoubted resources are not easily or immediately available. Those that were liquid—gold, jewels, and negotiable securities—have been used to enforce pwlitical formulae which find no general acceptance in other countries. That she has many million acres of inindifferently cultivated laud aiul mineral resources of exceptional value is true but her agricultural and mineral possibilities -are prejudiced bv lack of trfaneport and revolutionary 'ineptitudes. Much must be done lie fore these resources offer tangible bases for trade. The adoption of the New Economic- Folicv suggested that some Russians were apprehending the futility of their attempts to apply what they believed to »e Marxian philosophy. Other 'recessional steps are alreadt due. If they will face the fact that their theories of the common pool have been exploded a hundred times since the clavs of Robert Owen’s “New Harmony”' and Walter Lane’s struggles in Paraguay with “New Australia”, the world is ready to sympathise rather than condemn. If, instead of blaming others, thev will realise that they themselves offer the chief obstacles to international trade, their path will become appreciably easier. In Great Britain we all want Russia to recover her national stand and commercial stability, but it is necessary that her rulers ghoul d understand that if they b'ould

trade with llie world it is the first requisite that they must adopt the world's recognised methods of trading and the world’s code of commercial morality. "When Russia does this, trading will Ire easy.