The daily worker., 1924-11-07

ing the labor party.
But why the haste? Here / think
we come to the crux Of the new situ
alton. The crisis came not on the
Campbell case. Had the labor gov,
ernment. not made an ass Of itself on
this question the crisis would still
have been upon them. This crisis de
pended on the Anglo-Russian Treaty
Yet to still narrower limits must we
draw it. This hung upon the question
of a guaranteed loan and debt recog
milton.
Raised Great Howl.
On the lines of approach to the Boil
shevik delegates, Macdonald received
the plaudits of every capitalist paper
in the country. But when it came to
the loan question especially, there was
an almost universal howl. But for
this feature, it is probable that there
would have been an accommodation
with the liberals. This gave the con-
servatives their chance to develop
their campaign against the treaty as
a whole and with the help of
Lloyd George, the liberal party was
swung into line.
Why this complete change in the
attitude of the liberals who previous
ly were in favor of developing the re-
lations between Britain and Soviet
Russia? None of the liberal leaders
have given coherent reasons for the
change but have simply echoed the
TRADES of the conservative party
against helping the Bolsheviks. The
echo is so complete that we are driven
to the conclusion that the conserva-
tives hold the key to the riddle.
Turning to the conservatives for an
explanation, we find the following in
teresting theory propounded by
Baldwin on the eve of the election.
Russia never has been, and l do not
believe ever will be, one of our prin-
cipal markets. Geographically and
linguistically, conditions are against
it, just as those conditions are against
us in our trade on the lower waters
of the Danube. Our natural markets
are the Dominions, South America.
and the East There we have bet
ter chance of competing with the
world.
BaIdwin's Views.
Whether we like it or not, the ma
tural exploiter of Russian trade is
Germany. They have always done the
largest trade in Russia because, geo.
graphically, they are the most favor
ably situated and they study the Rus
sian language and understand Rus
sian methods of business. In my view
the thing for world trade, of which we
should get our share, would be the de-
velopment of Russian trade by us and
when it becomes possible by Germany
that she should turn into that market.
which some day, but not yet, will be a
great market-that she should turn In
to that country the surplus of exports
which is to provide for the payment of
reparations and incidentally of some
of our interest to America-that she
, should do that rather than the bulk
of that surplus should be turned either
into this country, or into our own spe-
cial markets which have described. :"
In addition therefore, to the hatred
of the Bolshevik government of Rus
STA there is also a very definite fear
of the increased competition that the
rehabilitation of Germany is bound to
bring. AS a matter of fact, in the
same speech Baldwin states: 1T is
perfectly true that the increased trade
that will come from the rehabilitation
of Germany, that is to say the increas-
ed world trade, must be coupled at the
same time with an increased compe-
titive power in Germany, and you have
to weigh the balance Of advantage.
The probability in my view is that
the balance on the whole is to our ad-
vantage, too, subject to one or two
observations shall have to make"
These observations l have already
quoted.
On Dawes Plan.
The position therefore, becomes
clear. The opposition to the Russian