makes an agreement with a capitalist company, In 1929 decides once more that ca [talists are untouchables, and immediately all the machinery actuated by the highly centraliz~ ed system of Moscow is put in force to undermine and destroy the concession which the government itself had granted. The company was hampered in every possible way. The markets which were promised to it were flagrantly closed. Its transac-ions with the government were regulated on the most fantastic Hines, calculated in every case to give the Soviet Government pre-pesterous advantages, In addition, the personnel of the com-led by charges of and cases were trumped up against its employees in spite of vehement declarations by the directors that the company was not concerned in political propaganda, The use by the Government of the law courts in the campaign against the company was given a sinister turn, for, in the attempt to bring home the charges of espionage, raids were purposely made on the technical records of the company, thus putting into the hands of the Soviet Government valuable information which they had no right to possess and which could be of great value to them if their campaign for the suppression of the company eventually sueceed-
Under the agreement an itration clause existed. Under this clause the company appealed to arbitration. Up to the eleventh hour the Soviet'
Government were represented at this court of arbitration. But it withdrew its representative for good reasons, as it must have been abundantly clear that the court would find strongly in favour of the oppressed company. The award has been given as already indicated. The Soviet Government has -bluntly intimated that the company may whistle for its money. That: may be." There is this much to be said, that in 1925, at all events, the Soviet Government was sufficiently anxious ensure foreign ce-operation. The Lena Goldfields case must necessarily give foreign firms much cause for consideration of the terms on which their co-opera tion is to be secured, It may be objected that in dealing with a party which has no regard whatever for the sanctity of an agreement, consideration of this kind is of Jittle account. But! ingenuity is not always on the side of dishonesty, and there are ways and means whereby. even the superb outlaws of Moscow can be made to realize that they cannot all the time fool the capitalist and at the same time profit by his labours The Lena Goldfields case will do much to exacerbate public opinion which is already seriously alarmed by the callous effrontery of the Soviet Government's latest escapade, the dumping of lazzo quantities of wheat on foreign countries when its own people are on the brink of starvation. Enthusiastic communists may pretend that this is a desperate stroke, to be justified by success if suc ce: can be achieved. That wil) not be the view of the world opinion which the Soviet Government, for all their boasting, cannot in the long run afford to ignore.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.