Material reasons stand in the way of full execution of the accords, however, For example, Russia has had to reduce her iron exports because she needs the ore herself for the Finnish conflict and wishes to lay in Stocks for possibly more important undertakings.
As for Soviet oil, another important export which Germany needs badly, dt is of such quality that Germany can use it only after costly refining. Transport of this oil is possible only through the Black Sea, moreover, and Black Sea communication lines can be cut off in an emergency.
Manganesé figures prominently on Germany's "shopping list" but it is bulky and large numbers of railway cars are needed to transport it, again laying extra strain on the none too strong Soviet and German railway systems, Important in any review of Soviet-German economic relations, the British observers continued, is the fact that Russia flatly refused to adopt the mark-rouble exchange rate that Germany wished to establish. Figures set forth in the accords just concluded re do not mean very much in risen with figures of German-Soviet trade in the boom year of 1931, when they did most trade with each other, and which they now are taking as their standard.
While Moscow and Berlin agreed to duplicate the trade of 1931, they seemed to forget that Germany then exported nearly three times as much as she imported from Soviet Russia, Today, she must import at least as much if she is to benefit.
According to the new accords, Germany will be allowed to purchase Soviet materials only after she has helped in their production. It is therefore a case not of "cash and carry" but of "manufacture and carry."—Havas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.