Economists and financiers representing the five Allied Powers have met
in London this week for- a preliminary discussion of the questions that will be raised at the Genoa Conference. According to the Times the main subject debated was the revival of trade with Russia, which is necessarily bound up with the recognition of Russia's public and private debts. M. Krassin has recently declared that the Bolsheviks will maintain at all costs their monopoly of foreign trade. On the other hand, the Manchester • Guardian correspondent lately at Moscow affirms that Communism is rapidly giving place to a normal system based on private property. The Bolshevik Foreign Minister, who seems to be more anxious for theConference than anyone else except its author, Mr. Lloyd George, has made a violent protest against the action of the Allies in coming to an understanding among themselves before their Ministers go to .Genoa. Chicherin's object is, of course, to divide the Allies and play off one against the other, and then to secure the full political recognition of Bolshevism by Europe.
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