A French View of Soviet Russia

*The return of M. Herriot from Moscow in October, 1922, at the head of a French economic mission to Moscow was hailed as an event of national importance. M. Herriot, Mayor of Lyons and a leader of the Liberal Party in the French Chamber of Deputies, brought back with him to France a conviction that the time was speedily approaching for a Franco-Russian entente, at least so far as a renewal of trade relations was concerned. On the basis of many interviews with the Soviet leaders in Moscow, he declared in public utterances that the Bolshevist Government was ready to meet France half way in an effort at mutual conciliation, and that a recognition by Russia of the French debts was by no means excluded. The seriousness with which the French press discussed the possibility of a reversal of the Government’s policy toward Russia, and the likelihood of an eventual rapprochement, was symptomatic of the new trend in France regarding Russia.—ED.