New-York tribune., 1921-06-05

Her supplies Of raw. materials are
widely scattered over the country, and
TO collect them and bring them TO the
ports will, with Russian transport IN
the state it is in at present, be very
slow task The view most widely held
by those most Interested in foreign
trade in Russia is that this gold
should not be used for immediate pay
meut to manufacturers for their goods,
but should be made the basis of sa-
curity for a broad credit TO be obtained
from foreign government, or better
still, group of governments IN the in
terest of Russia.
Gold, which is the commodity most
easily available, should be, therefore.
taken as kind OF security for the
future deliveries Of the raw materials
Russia has to offer. This view Of the
function of geld as security, rather
than as payment, makes ali the discus
sion and gossip rs to whether the gold
is tainted or its legal status doubtful
utterly beside the mark. Gold will
thus not actually be spent, and Rus
sian trade will in the end become, as
it was originally meant to be, bar
tering of European manufactured goods
against Russia's raw materials, and
later food.
Timber Resources Untouched
Nevertheless, even with all the trans
portsdificulties that exist to-day, Rus
| sia, impoverished and exhausted as she
is, can scrape together quite a consider
able amount of exports of a character
highly desirable TO the West. One
/ thinks, naturally, first of all of Rus
sia's vast forests of timber.
In spite of the rapacious demands
made upon Russian forestry by the Ger
man occupation of her western prov
| inces and, again, of the fact that Rus
| STA herself has had to draw heavily on
wood as a fuel because of the coal and
| oil shortage, and despite the series of
| great forest fires that took place last
/ summer, Russia's timber resources have
remained practically untouched
1t is necessary to point out that the
timber trade will be for some time
greatly handicapped by the disorgani-
zatlon OF railway and river transport
and by the great shortage of horses for
bringing the felled timber to the rail
way and river centers. The shortage of
food for the needs of the forestry work
ers may also for some time continue to
! present rather serious difficulties
However, it is declared that 100000
standards can be shipped Immediately.
Very few people in the West under
stand how closely and seriously the
food situation, affects the branches of
Russian activity, whether they be in
| dustrial or political. The area given
| over to the cultivation of cotton mas
fallen because of the need for bread
and now fiVe-sixths of the former cot
ton area is engaged in grain produc-
tlon. In 1915 Russian Turkestan pro-
| duced 20,000,O00 pools of raw cotton.
but now the utmost Russia can expect
from Turkestan this year cannot ex-
ceed 100000 pools. or half OF Turkes
tan's present total production The
other industrial crops" such a. fax
and hemp, have also decreased enor.
mously. but not quite to the same ex-
tent. The area under fax cultivation
has decreased by about so per cent
In 1915 there were 982 900 dessiatines
Under fax, while last year only $4,000
dessiatines were cultivated for this
purpose.
Cotton and Flax
Yet, in spite of the fall in the pro
duction of cotton, flax and hemp, there
is undoubtedly quite fair amount Of
all these commodities ready for export
Even though the production of these
raw materials has fallen so low, the
factories of Russia have been working
so slowly that they have not been able
to absorb even these enormously de
creased supplies. The productivity o.
| the cotton factories (excluding those Of
Poland and the Baltic provinces) is, fol
! instance now cnly 6 per cent of what