A RATIONAL ATTITUDE: With all that the Chancellor said concerning
the tactics of the Soviet Government,. the City, of course, is entirely in accord. In some respects Mr. Churchill was talking platitudes, because it is always up to the trader to look after himself in the matter of commercial risks and not to look to the Govern- ment for protection. On the other hand, it might have been well, perhaps; if the Chancellor of the Exchequer had more clearly acknowledged that by virtue of the trading agreement- with Russia under the Coalition Government, and later by reason of the formal recognition of the Soviet Government by Mr. MacDonald's administration, business men may be said to have received a kind of direct encouragement to -trade with that country. Nevertheless, I should be wrong if 'I represented the City as other than deeply concerned in the principles involved in what amounts to foreign interference in our industrial affairs. I do not think the matter could be better expressed than it was the other day in a leader in the Financial News in which the writer said : In their hearts, moderate men of experience are saying, in effect, to Russia : ' Do as you would be done by. Whatever our opinions may be, we have no desire to interfere with you or to change the course of your politics by our armaments or by our money. We will see to it that you shall preserve the same attitude.' They are saying. that in their, hearts, and that is what they expect their (the British) Government to say."
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