TIte Company under the Five Year Plan was allowed to
deal only with the Soviet. And the Soviet fixed its own prices. Anyone who tried to buy privately from the Company was threatened with death. Much of the property of the Company was stolen, and the Company could get no redress. In the end members of the Company's staff were arrested and tried on the charge of being revolutionaries. The Company had wisely taken the precaution of getting inserted in its agreement with the Soviet a provision that disputes should be submitted to a Court of Arbitration, consisting of three members, one representing the Soviet, one the Company, and one being a "super-arbitrator." The Court was appointed on the Company's demand, but at the last moment the Soviet refused to be represented on the ground that the Company had itself abandoned the Concessions. All that the Company had done was to refuse any longer to spend money as its work had been made impossible or profitless. We hope, without feeling that it is justifiable to hope, that the Company and its shareholders will get their money. A more serious matter than individual hardship, however, is the bleak outlook for trade with Russia. We have earnestly hoped that this country might find new markets in Russia and that trade would gradually lessen the political tension, but it would be foolish to deny that the Lena case has frightened industrial pioneers.
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