see any difficulty as to arrangements for banking
or credit. No private corporations or individuals are allowed, or in future will be
allowed, to set up these institutions. The
National Bank of Russia is the only bank
through which business can be done with
Russia. There is, I am told, a considerable
amount of gold available for the purchase of
goods, but Krassin is not anxious that business
should be done merely by exchanging gold for
goods. He prefers exchanging goods for
goods. This is where the transport question
comes in : if the accumulated stores are to be
set free Russia must be able to secure at least
two thousand locomotives. The infamous embargo
put on the Baku oil wells by the British
must also be removed.
There is another outstanding fact which proves that the Russian people themselves do not intend to go back to capitalism and the Czardom. In spite of dissensions and disagreements all co-operative societies are now united in deed as well as word. From Archangel right away to Omsk all the small and large societies are federated. The biggest societies in Siberia are joined with those of the Moscow province. To understand what this means we in England should try to realise the effect which will be produced when all the wholesale and retail productive and distributive co-operative societies from John o’
