4 NOVEMBER 1932, Page 2

** * • Trade With Russia The firm line taken

by the Government on Lonl Mount Temple's motion in the House of Lords on Tuesday regarding trade with Russia is extremely satisfactory. Russia is the one great country of the world with a large unsatisfied demand for precisely the kind .of manufactured articles, principally machinery, which this country is qualified to supply. As it is, far too many orders have gone to Germany or the United States instead of coming here because those countries can offer better credit terms than are available to British exporters. But even so, as Lord Templemore observed for the Government, there has been a steady increase in our exports to Russia each year since 1929. There has, it may be added, been no case of default in payment on the part of the Soviet Government. Any expansion of. this trade decreases unemployment in Great Britain, and to sacrifice it out of political prejudice would be a crime rather than a blunder. The Govern- ment's attitude, as defined in particular by Lord Londonderry, is thoroughly sound. It is unfortunate that the existing Trade Agreement with Russia had to be denounced out of deference to Canada, but the advantages to both countries of trade expansion are such that negotiation of the new treaty should present no great difficulty. * .*