Evening star., 1923-07-08
By r. A. MACKENZIE.

/ Correspondence of The Evening Star and
Chicago Daily News Foreign service.)
| MOSCOW, Russia, June 15.-Leonid
krassfn. the able and liberal head OF
| the soviet commissariat OF foreign
trade, declared during his recent visit
to London that there was a large
field of usefulness for American cap
| ftal in Russia In exploiting the innu-
merable natural treasures of the
country s-
For two years the Russian govern
ment has been inviting. largely in
vain, the cooperation Of foreign cap
tains of industry. 1t points out that
Russia is the richest undeveloped land
in the world. 1t probably has more
virgin riches than all the rest of the
world put together. The known min
| eral resources are colossal. Most of
| this potential wealth lies fallow.
| American business men and capt.
| talists know all about this. So do
British. They are both eager for
openings abroad. Yet two years after
| the invitation of the soviet govern
ment the foreign concessions operat-
| ing in Russia can be counted on the
| fingers of two pairs of hands.
! In all, twenty-nine concessions have
| been granted, but many of these are
still in the preliminary stages. Two
! of the concessions relate to cable
services. four are for settlements on
land of special religious or other
| groups and several are for exporting
Russian goods. Those that deal with
the development of Russia's natural
wealth are pitifully few.
| Big Harvester Factory.
| The International Harvester Cor
| poration has recovered its big fac
| tory outside of Moscow, but the ef-
! fort to operate 1t has not been-to
| put 1t mildly-a> marked success An
| American socialist-Dr. Hamer-ob-
| tanned. thanks to his friendship. with
| Lenin, q concession Of some asbestos
lands in the Urals. His concession
| also has an omnibus clause which
permits his company, the American
| things. 1t started importing cheap
American automobiles, and assem-
bling plants and service depots were
| to have been opened. Suddenly the
bgovernment prohibited the fmporta-
ftion of these cars on the ground that
| 1t wished to foster Russian industry.
! Last autumn Sydney Hillman. the
American Garment Workers Union
| leader, obtained concession under
| which company, promoted and
/ bring light and leadership to Rus
! sian tailoring, and incidentally to
make handsome profits. Mr.. Hillman
anticipated great things. We have
yet to see any sign of them here.
! The story of the Kuzbas concession
| is one of the most curious of all. A
number of American socialists, large
/ ly i. w. VS., were seized with the
idea of establishing a Utopia in ST.
IBERIA. where they should be free from
| the dictation of the hated capitalist.
Bill Haywood obtained what was
thought to be great mineral con-
! cession at kemerovo. Four hundred
and sixty persons came over at their
own cost, most of them subscribing
from $1,000 TO $4,000. Some Of them
were organizers and engineers who
had done good, responsible work in
America. Most were husky young me-
chanics. Their colony was to have
been autonomous.
| Many Return.
| All their dreams have vanished.
Many of the colony have returned to
America. Others would like to re-
turn. The concession was found to be
different from what was expected: the
control vanished. The colonists are
today working for wages-Russian
| wages-and have no more voice or
control than they would have in a
Pennsylvania mine.
The one American group that seems
to be working happily is the Interna-
tional Barsedall Corporation. which
has obtained a considerable conces-
sion for operating oil fields on shares
in cooperation with the Russian gov
ernment. in the Baku field. This cor.
poration is as yet in the prelimin ar
stages of it's work
These remarks do not apply to the
Far Eastern Republic. For some time
up to late last year, eastern Siberia
had separate administration, with a
popular assembly and a capital at
Chita. The Chfta government was di-
rect and business-like. 1t granted for
eigners many rights, the most famous
the Sinclair oil group in northern
Sakhalin. American and other bust.
ness men from Chita speak in high
terms of the opportunities there, and
of the facilities given to them. The
Far Eastern Republic has now been
absorbed by soviet Russia, and it is
not yet quite clear what difference
THAT was liberal to foreigners was
lclosely controlled by Moscow, so there
is hope that the door may remain
open.
Germans Find Difficulty.
In Russia itself other countrie.
have not done much better than tn,
United States or Great Britain. Wher
Russia and Germany formed thei,
close alliance 1t was thought tha
Germany would flood the Russia,
field. Hugo SHINES sent one Of hi
chief representatives here, but de
clared In the end that while existint
restrictions continued he would no
come In.
The Hxmburg-America line got
shipping concession. The Junker com
pany Is building aeroplanes here