10 MARCH 1923, Page 2

Mr. E. F. Wise has resigned from the Civil Service

to become director of the London Office of the Soviet Russian Co-operative Societies. Mr. Wise has long been known as one of the most able and energetic of the younger Civil Servants. He is said to believe that our Russian trade can be greatly increased. We cannot entirely join in the almost pathetic hopes that this individual decision has created. We fear that the dreams of a vast trade with Russia are very illusory. We must- remember that already there are no Government restrictions, and that trade is perfectly free to move if it can. Is it not correct to say that while our exports to Russia last year were valued at 18,000,000 they were before the War no more than £16,000,000?