The attitude of the Russian Soviet towards the mani- festo
recently issued by British bankers is a disagreeable proof of how far the two sides are still removed from one another's thoughts and methods. All that the bankers said was, in effect, that the sanctity of contract should be recognized, and that no private person could be expected to trade with Russia unless he were given guarantees that his property and person would be respected. Yet this manifesto has been, and is being, denounced as a kind of outrage. Communism. and the commerce of Western Europe have really no common language. It is all very disappointing, as though we may get a considerable European settlement out of the Dawes Report we cannot get a- final and general settlement till Russia will behave in a neighbourly way to other countries.
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