Pocketbook Friends

Ideological political differences between nations are often overlooked when the pocketbook is concerned. Anti-Communist Germany was at one time the chief seller of goods to Soviet Russia and. although trade between the two countries is gradually drying up, as late as 1937 15% of Russia's imports came from Germany. Last week the Soviet Union made a new pocketbook deal with Italy, where the Anti-Comintern pact originated. Under a barter arrangement, trade between the two nations is expected to hit $52,675,000 annually, almost two and a half times the volume provided by their last commercial accord, which was interrupted two years ago.

Italy will import such valuable potential wartime supplies as naphtha and manganese, vital peacetime products such as coal, lumber, wheat and barley. Symbolic of their new pocketbook friendship was the launching at Livorno last week of a small destroyer, Italian-built for the Russian Navy.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.