17 JULY 1941, Page 14

OUR NEW ALLY

SIR,—Now that we are at last in alliance with the Russian people we must not forget the pioneers for a better understanding with Russia, such as my old editor, W. T. Stead. One useful thing we can all do is to get the widest possible circulation for Sir Bernard Pares' judicial Russia in the sixpenny Penguin series, an admirable introduction to the study of the country. I have sent a thanksgiving gift to Mr. Maisky for the Russian wounded. It is a pleasing memory of mine that at school I was, I believe, the only boy on the side of the Russians in the Russo-Turkish War—and had now and then a rough time of it in