May 20.
Lord Snowden's speech in the House of Lords last month on the problem of trade between Great Britain and Russia has recently been published in fairly complete form in this journal. It! [was made in reply to a spirited beech by Lord Lloyd who, in king for a declaration of Gov-lornment policy, criticised the continuance of credit to a country which "wantonly repudiated its debts" and indulged in a strategical and tactical war upon our markets." Lord Lloyd also drew pointed—attention to the communist propagand: spread by agents of the Third International, the association of the Soviet Government has Been constantly noted by. successive Foreign Secretaries. Lord Snowden's declaration that, the Government had made strong representations to the Soviet Government regarding the disparity between exports to Russia and imports from that country into Great Britain, was warmly welcomed by Lord Lloyd who showed general satisfaction with the Government reply by withdrawing his motion. The signi ficance of the debate may be found less in Lord Snowde indication of firm handling of the credit and the balance of trade issues than in the marked change in the Government's tone towards Russian diplomacy. While Lord Snowden ruefully admitted that the Russians were very difficult to get on with" and strongly endorsed Lord Lloyd's condemnation of the Soviet's repudiation of Russia's. international—obliga tions, he indicated that the British Government were pursuing ino reckless policy of unguarded trust or of obstinate aloofne: Renewals of credits would not attempted for more than twelve months without more stringent guarantees than in the past. Conversations in regard to debts had been stopped and there the Government, for the moment, were nonplussed. They were open to practical auggestions on that last point, Perhaps the most_" striking passage in Lord Snowden's speech was the assertion that the virulence of Russian propaganda in capitalist countries had greatly abated. Speaking as la member of the National Gov-lornment, with the resources of Whitehall behind him, Lord Snowden must be taken to hav faithfully reflected the latest official view of this long-dis-lenssed problem. Shanghai has reason to know the seriousness lof it. Even now the activities lof foreign and Moscow-trained Chinese communist agents are engaging the close attention of ithe authorities both inside and outside the International Settlement and French Concession. It is therefore satisfactory to learn that the vigilance of those au-{thorities are likely to be reward-led, for, if there has been a real damping down' outside Russia lof communist revolutionary propaganda directed by Moscow, it
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.