As if to point the moral of The Hague Conference,
Norway 'has just found out that her commercial treaty with the Bol- sheviks does not protect Norwegian interests in Russia. A Norwegian company, trusting to the treaty, had invested money in Russian forests. The timber which it had felled has been seized by the Bolsheviks and is being shipped by them for sale in England. Whether the courts here will give the company redress for this barefaced theft seems doubtful, as they- have already ruled that English property -confiscated in Russia may be sold by the Bolsheviks in England. The case illustrates the real difficulty of doing anything for Russia while the country is ruled by men who set the ordinary civilized code at- defiance. No sane person would invest his money in commercial enter- prises which could be confiscated at any moment.
Previous page
