Liubimov Miracle

Three months ago if an ordinary Italian citizen had been asked how soon the Italian government would sign a trade treaty with Soviet Russia, how soon Italian workmen would build ships for the Bolsheviks, the citizen would have replied that only a miracle could bring such things to pass. Undying opposition to Communism and all its manifestations is the very cornerstone of Fascism.

Il Duce is astute enough to realize that Soviet Russia, more than four times as large as the rest of Europe, with a population of 154 millions, is a market no country can afford to ignore. Fascist Italy has granted official recognition of the Soviet. Last week while U. S. businessmen agitated for Soviet recognition (see p. 13) Isador Liubimov, Assistant Commissar of the Soviet Commissariat for Foreign Trade, was formally wined and dined in Rome, after which he and representatives of the Fascist government signed an agreement whereby Russia will buy $10,000,000 worth of Italian manufactured goods before July 1, 1931: $2,500,060 to be spent on ships; $7,000,000 on airplanes, machinery; $500,000 on chemicals, chiefly fertilizers.

Whatever purchases Italy makes in return will be for cash, but just what these purchases will be was not divulged last week. Rumor said lumber, coal, mineral ores, petroleum. Chief weakness of Italy's war machine is her great lack of coal and petroleum in commercial quantities. It is known that the Soviet Naphtha Syndicate of Moscow, official distributor of Soviet oil, has set up a subsidiary company in Italy known as Petrolea. Observers guessed that Petrolea will be given the job of stocking the enormous oil reservoirs which Italy's army and navy are now building.

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