NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MR. LLOYD GEORGE and other Ministers again received the Bolshevik Krassin in conference at Downing Street on Monday. Later in the evening the Prime Minister was invited to explain these singular negotiations in the House of Commons. He declared that the Allies, before M. Clemenceau resigned, had agreed to reopen trade with Russia. At San Remo the Allies had decided to enter into negotiations with the Bolshevik delegates who had come to Copenhagen, including Krassin, but not Litvinoff. Mr. Lloyd George admitted that it was his own proposal. He said that Russia had grain and raw materials to sell, and that we must " reorganise the trading facilities of Russia." It was idle to suppose that we could only trade with nations of whose Governments we approved, for we had always traded with Turkey, Mexico, Russia under the Tsars, and the cannibals. His object, he said, was to restore peace in the world, and especially in Russia. We were not prepared to fight the Bolsheviks ; we must therefore try other methods. We comment on the speech elsewhere.
