Up to the Russians

A chartered British Skyways York, just in from Moscow, overshot the London airport runway and nosed over. From the crushed cabin, Britain's Secretary for Overseas Trade J. Harold Wilson emerged and said casually: "Now I have got to see a doctor as my ribs hurt me." Next day he went to tell his chief, Sir Stafford Cripps, that Britain's trade mission to Moscow had also crashed. It was unlikely that the mission would return to Russia.

Britons had pinned high hopes on a successful trade deal with Moscow. To help ease the drain on Britain's U.S. dollar credits, they wanted grain and timber in exchange for British machinery. After weeks of tough bargaining, agreement seemed at last in sight.

The crux of the matter: Wilson's attempt to reach an accord as to how, and at what rate, Moscow would repay a credit of -L-55,000,000, resulting from a wartime agreement hastily made with the Soviet Union in 1941 after Hitler invaded Russia. In that, he had failed--the Russians insisted adamantly on terms which the British could not afford to meet. A reporter asked: "Is the door completely shut?" Replied Wilson: "That's up to the Russians."

Meanwhile, there was talk that Russia might enter the world export market and try to compete with the U.S. and Canada in a big way.

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