1 86 How to Pay for the War 



Propaganda work on an extensive scale is essential to 

 counteract the false conception of Great Britain which is 

 inculcated in the minds of the Russian people in a skilful 

 manner by our enemies, and wholehearted offers of 

 technical and financial assistance must be made in the 

 establishment and furtherance of their industries. The 

 appeal must not be addressed to any one class or section, 

 but to the whole country. 



It is suggested, therefore, that a large influential and 

 representative mission of British finance, industry and 

 labour should proceed to Russia at the first possible 

 opportunity with the full support of the British Govern- 

 ment, to present the case for the Allies to the Russian 

 people, and to offer them practical help in their business 

 and economic development. Such a mission would be 

 assured of the heartiest welcome in Russia, and should 

 find — provided it is not hampered by official or diplomatic 

 restrictions — a very fertile ground for the sowing of its 

 seed. 



While it is not possible at this stage to lay down a 

 definite programme, the objects can be indicated broadly. 

 The mission would devote itself to reaching the Russian 

 people outside the centres of German influence. The need 

 is therefore at once to form an influential committee, 

 which committee shall, by means of deputation, press these 

 views upon the British Government before it is too late. 



In face of the above, one was glad to see in the Sunday 

 Pictorial, oi March 17, the following claim by Mr. Hall Caine 

 as to the need of making England and Russia understand 

 each other better. " War," he told us, " is a terrible 

 intelligencer, and two years of the struggle on their western 

 frontier told the Russian soldier a fearful if partial story. 

 If we could have shown him (as by moving pictures) what 

 great things he was fighting for, and that the nations of 

 the West were shedding their blood in the same cause, it 

 would not have been possible for him to have been led to 

 believe (as most cruelly and criminally was done), that 

 he was bearing ihe whole burden of the W^ar. And 

 if we, on our pari, had been permitted to see the Russian 

 peasants, in those first blind and evil days, being marched 

 on to the battlefields without proper food, without shoes 

 and often without arms, to be mown down like grass before 

 the scythe, we should have sent succour in time, and so 

 have saved the Russian people from the unscrupulous 

 Jewish-German-Russian schemers who are now hurling 

 them to destruction and their country to death." 



