The East—West Problem
Sta,—Mr. Cadbury states that the Quaker delegation walked about Moscow and Kiev " unaccompanied " when they wished to do so. It goes without saying that he and his colleagues 'genuinely believed them- selves to be "unaccompanied." But, if this was really so, their case must have been almost unique in the annals of foreign visits to modern Russia. Any foreigner resident for some time. there will, I think, cor- roborate the fact that foreigners, whether their visits be long or short, are " shadowed " by plain-clothes men of the security police.
No doubt the Quakers were blissfully unaware of their escort, for these gentlemen are self-effacing and discreet. But no Soviet citizen with whom the Quakers may have opened casual conversation would have overlooked the pmence of these plain-clothes men. That is what renders virtually impossible any genuine contacts betwen foreigners and Soviet citizens.
If the Quakers were deceived in this comparatively small matter, it is possible that they may have been deceived in other things also. They, as people with a well-deserved reputation for sincerity and truth, must be specially careful lest unintentionally they let themselves be used by the present rulers of Russia as conveyors of false impressions;--Yours faithfully, MICHAEL HILTON. Dinsdale House, Tysoe, Warwickshire.
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