A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK
IHAVE more than once emphasised here the disastrous failure of the various half-hearted attempts to interpret this country to Russia. Never was the necessity greater than on the morrow of the signature of .a treaty that has revealed in the two Governments an identity of view which loses half its value unless it is matched by a similar understanding of one another by the two peoples. The appointment of a Press attaché at the British Embassy at Kuibishev was a step in the right direction, even though the choice of the first holder of that office provoked more questioning than reassurance. His efforts seem to have borne little fruit as yet, for The Times correspondent in Moscow, in a message printed on Wednesday, declares roundly that nothing worth doing has been done so far. The British Embassy has not yet established its Press office ; the British case is not being presented to Russia ; British films being exhibited in Moscow today are the same films that were being shown three months and more ago. There may be excuses for part of this. The new Press officer, I believe, had a narrow escape on his way to Russia and lost most or all of his luggage, which, for all I know, may have included up-to-date films. The Russians, moreover, are not making things easier by their insistence on keeping the foreign Embassies in comparative exile at Kuibishev when they ought to be at Moscow. But the conclusion is clear—whatever the difficulties, they must somehow be surmounted. What we need even more than friendship and understanding between the two Govern- ments is friendship and understanding between the two peoples.
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