13 AUGUST 1921, Page 2

The third, and perhaps the greatest, though so much the

least sensational of the contributory causes, is the almost complete breakdown of Russian transport, whether by rail or road. The only things that still seem capable of moving in Russia are the Soviet Armies with their spear-head of Chinese and Latvian mercenaries and their battalions of Bolsheviks red with the blood of their countrymen. In the days before British good govern- ment, British enterprise, and British devotion had freed India from the triennial menace of Famine, our leading administrators insisted that the only certain way to prevent it was to make more roads and railways. Like the Bishop in Browning's poem, they pointed out that " there is always Durrah somewhere in the world," and that when Jumblepur is without it, Tintelly may have a glut.