Trade with Russia
The Trade Agreement with Russia announced by the Board of Trade on Wednesday is singularly welcome. It is the result of long and often trying negotiations, and Mr. H. A. Marquand, Parliamen- tary Secretary to the Department of Overseas Trade, is to be con- gratulated on the result achieved. In goods and figures the agreement amounts to relatively little—Russia compounds at L35,000,000 for a k40,000,000 war-time debt to us, and we buy 25,000 standards of timber from her at a reasonable price—but this is the first post-war trade agreement to be concluded at all with Russia, and if it opens the door, as seems probable, to a development of mutually beneficial trade relations it will have justified itself abundantly. In fact the prospects of trade development are good. Russia needs a variety of goods which British factories can supply. Sir George Nelson, one of the leaders of the electrical equipment industry in this country, is conducting business discussions at this moment in Moscow. Other discussions are going on between British industrialists and the Russian Trade Delegation here. Business men may yet find their way better than politicians through the iron curtain.
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