July 14.
From the time when M. Litvinoff demanded credits £341,000,000 as the sole condition on which Soviet Russia would even begin to consider payment of her debts, it was hard to imagine that there could be any conclusion to The Hague Conference except that reported today. M. Litvinoff's amazing demand was made on July 1, the conference then having been siting for a fortnight. Some attempt was made by the Entente representatives to persuade the Soviet to reconsider its impudent proposal. But the Bolsheviks appear to have thought that they had only to be firm in order to get what they wanted. They evidently counted on divided feelings in the other camp, by which they might profit. They believed that some of the people with whom they had to deal were so greedy for renewed trade with Russia that they would agree to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.