The Russian Embargo Bill • In the course of the
Russian debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday Sir John Simon answered one question raised in an article on a later page of this issue, by explaining that the White Paper on the arrest of the British engineers covered only five days out of a period of nearly four weeks because it was not in the interest of' the accused men to carry the story any further. The Govern- ment's judgement regarding that must, of course, be accepted, for Ministers alone know the facts. The debate as a whole left the question of whether the embargo on Russian goods was desired as a measure of reprisal in connexion with the trial, or as a bargaining counter in connexion with the trade negotiations, without satisfac- tory answer: As regards the trial -the- Government's difficulty is obvious. It is imperative to do everything possible for the accused men, whose examination in prison was little short of torture, but impossible to interfere with the normal course of the law in Russia at this stage—that was fully admitted by the Foreign Minister—and all too easy to take a step which, by making Moscow feel that if it arranges an acquittal it will be yielding to menace, may have actually the opposite of the desired effect. In abnormal conditions in which any course taken may well turn out wrong it only remains to hope that the course actually taken may turn out right—and to hope too that the embargo powers may never have to be used.
