Luncheon

In New York City, financiers buzzed excitedly over a luncheon given by Vice President Reeve Schley of the Chase National Bank to the representatives of the Ail-American Textile Syndicate and the Amtorg Trading Corporation, the latter being the Russian Soviet Union's agency in the U. S.

The luncheon in question was a somewhat unique affair. The invitation list included, not the usual long-haired admirers of communism but some of the most eminent, not to say hardboiled, bankers of Wall Street. The luncheon was held in the spacious Bankers' Club behind closed doors.

In Russia the news of the luncheon was construed in the Soviet press to constitute "the first outspoken recognition by American finance and industry of the importance of Soviet trade and the stability of the Soviet government." When New York reporters waylaid poor Mr. Schley and cross-examined him as to the accuracy of this pronouncement, he ascribed the luncheon to social motives. He in fact owed the Soviets a luncheon, since last summer they entertained him in Russia.