164 Ho'd' to Pay for the War 



carefully and thorouglily. " I was over in Russia some 

 three years ago," Loicl Charles Beresford told us, after 

 Mr. Primrose had spoken, " and saw all classes of society. 

 What struck me most was their distrust of the German 

 nation ; and their trust, sympathy, and, I may say, afiec- 

 tion for the people of these islands. If we examine Russia 

 we might without exaggeration say that her resources are 

 illimitable. We, I thmk, could aid her a great deal if we 

 were to help develop her industries and agriculture by 

 means of our capital ; we would thus benefit the two great 

 Empires." "Russia," urged Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P., 

 who followed, " has not yet reached its full and possible 

 heights as an industrial manufacturing country ; for the 

 moment it must be regarded mainly as an agricultural 

 centre like my own country (Ireland) " and, Mr. O'Connor 

 might well have added, like Latin America " Russia," said 

 her very good friend, Mr. Stephen Graham, " stands with 

 her arms full of gifts for us, full of blessings like, perhaps, 

 the goddess of agriculture. . . . Russia needs people 

 who know Russian, and if the English go to the provincial 

 towns they cannot get into real touch with the people 

 without a knowledge of the language." This is as true of 

 Russia and her people and trade, as it is of Latin America ; 

 and I am told that, once you can decipher the letters, 

 Russian is easier to learn than German. 



Meanwhile both Russia and Latin America — i.e., from 

 Mexico in the Northern Continent, through the smaller 

 States in Central America, right south to Tierra del Fuego 

 — are, at present, to the " man in the street," like an 

 apparently bottomless pit into which the many can look 

 but only the few can see anything but dust and disorder, 

 turmoil and trouble. Yet it is not really so ; those who 

 know and understand the heterogeneous mass of races 

 that go to make up these countries realize that existence 

 is not one long round of trouble for them, but that life still 

 goes on and is almost as bearable as it is here in England, 

 where we have our labour strikes and " peaceful picket- 

 ing " that no one but the magistrate believes is peaceful. 



All nations have much good and a little evil in them ; 

 Russia and Latin America are no exceptions to this rule, 

 but, in their case, I firmly believe that what is good in 

 them can be greatly developed by outside influence and 

 financial assistance, provided care is taken that the money 

 is spent in the right way. I understand that this Review 

 hopes to point out how this outside influence and money 

 can be best utilized for the advantage both of Russia and 



