A useful analysis of t • he relationship between Soviet Russia
and the outside world is provided by Dr. Frederick Lewis Schuman in American Policy toward Russia since 1917 (Martin Lawrence, 10s.). The author is Instructor in Political Science at the University of Chicago. As he sees the State Depart- ment's policy of non-recognition, it-is impossible to separate the legalistic and political arguments, still less to differentiate as between economic and_ political factors, _ Undoubtedly • propaganda, repudiation and confiscation have been •
principles " of the foreign policy of the U.S.S.R., and there- fore in refusing to recognize its Government the United States is entirely within its rights, by all the tenets of inter- national law. Even so, there are, by the same token, some equally legitimate Soviet counter-claims. There is a no less plausible logical defence for the attitude taken up by the Sovjet Government. And in practice recognition is not
simply a matter of law. Recognition was immediately extended to the Provisional Government of March 1917 for political reasons. It has been withheld from the Soviet Government for political reasons." On the other hand, while the fiction is preserved that there are no restrictions (since 1921) on American business men in their trading activities with Soviet Russia, in practice, of course, long-term credits are refused, and trade is fatally hampered because, failing recognition, Russian gold is not accepted by the Federal Reserve Banks or the Mint, and the ban on the flotation of securities is maintained. Strictly speaking, the Wall Street ban is not affected by the issue of diplomatic relations, for loans are refused, on principle, to those States which have not funded their War debts. Actually the official American policy accepts the thesis of the Bolshevist extremists, and the extremists on the other side, that violent conflict between Russia and the world outside Russia is inevitable ; it is based, that is to say, on the hypothesis of war. This is rank heresy in these days of the Peace Pact, and American statesmanship dedicated to the task of constructing a world at peace. For this and many other contingent reasons the author evidently hopes that President Hoover will reverse the engines, and seek to deal constructively with present realities." This is clearly a case where wisdom and expediency should prevail over legalistic pretexts and " metaphysical
distinctions." * *
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