headed British investigator at Moscow recently found that the chief 
reason for last year’s war scare in Russia was that the Russians could 
not believe that so practical a nation as England would knock its 
trade with Russia on the head unless it meant to follow up the 
rupture with war. They have not entertained a like suspicion of the 
United States, but leaving the question of recognition out of the 
account they wonder that our government is so little interested in 
promoting profitable trade with Russia. 
“In Russia, for example, there is a great demand for American 
motion pictures, yet it was stated in a recent dispatch that no new 
American films had reached Russia for months, and that a represen- 
tative of the Russian motion picture business had been unable after 
repeated efforts to secure a visa for a visit to the United States to 
buy or rent pictures. Meanwhile Mr. Hays thinks it worth while 
to make a special trip to France to head off restrictions which would 
hurt Hollywood's business in that country. 
“Examples are hardly needed to make it clear that Russian 
trade still has to overcome formidable barriers due to lack of trade 
facilities. If and when the great commercial countries, and notably 
Great Britain and the United States, decide that growing unemploy- 
ment makes necessary a further expansion of foreign trade, Russia 
offers the greatest still unexploited market, and the very fact that 
it has been so long pent up suggests that it might be made to expand 
rapidly by a little well-directed effort. 
Journal of Commerce, New York, April 7, 1928 
WANDERING GOLD 
“The Soviet ~old which reached these shores a few weeks ago 
and was refused recognition by the Assay Office has been removed 
after a delay involving a heavy loss in interest. The removal i 
easy to understand, since had the gold remained much longer it 
would doubtless have been attached by France or some other clainr 
ant, and the interest losses would in that case have continued to pile 
up for an indefinite period of time. 
“Tt is claimed by some of the Russians that the French effort 
to annex this gold shipment was undertaken for political reason 
and not with any expectation that a suit to recover possession wold 
meet with success. Considering, however, the strange decisions that 
our courts have given in matters relating to former Russian prop” 
erties and the lack of precedents by which to test the present issu 
the case may not have seemed altogether hopeless to France. French 
action if due to a deliberate plan to embarrass Russo-American trade 
3