Questions & Answers

Trained in the old school of Tsaral diplomacy, M. Georg Tchitcherin, now Foreign Minister to the Soviet Union, represents a late and almost perfect flowering of the outworn cult of secret diplomacy. He still employs all its stock phrases, catch-subterfuges which seldom deceive a rabbit--for example, he never "goes on a mission" but "travels for his health." Yet when cornered and pressed for categorical answers to specific questions he speaks with the adroit tongue of a sibyl or a Machiavelli. Last week he arrived at Paris as expected (TIME, Dec. 7), and the Olympian game of interrogating him was resumed by correspondents, with the following results:

"Q.--Are the pre-Revolution debts of the Tsarist Government to be eventually settled by the present Soviet Government?

A.--"I have always found that any declarations made on this subject lead to Stock Exchange maneuvers by unscrupulous persons holding Tsarist securities. The Franco-Russian counter-claims will shortly be considered by a joint commission."

Q.--You have been quoted as saying that the Russian Revolution has "wiped out" all private debts to foreign nationals. How do you justify this attitude?

A.--"When foreigners invested in Russia's mines and vast untapped resources, it was because their profits were greater than those to be derived at home. They were therefore speculating, and must stand their losses as a speculator or a gambler does."

Q,--Then investments in Russia since the Revolution are subject to this same risk?

A.--"By no means! Investments in the new Russia are absolutely sound, because they are guaranteed by our Civil Code. The Harriman interests know this, and have obtained great manganese concessions in Georgia.* The production of their Georgian Manganese Co. was 63,000 metric tons last month."

Q.-- (From a French correspondent.) Do you realize that the French Government has never repudiated its debts in any way?

A.--"A French politician once told me, 'France recognizes debts but doesn't pay them, while Russia doesn't recognize debts but seeks, nevertheless, to see if they cannot be arranged.' '

Q.--Is Russia attempting to negotiate "Locarno" agreements with the Baltic States on the one hand and the Eastern European States on the other?

A.--"I have not the slightest idea what you mean when you say 'Locarno' or 'the Spirit of Locarno.' If you mean peaceful relations, then that is what we have been seeking for a long time. . . . The future will show if the Locarno agreement really has the pacific character attributed to it by those participating in it, or whether some of them will not regret this work after some time. . . . I may say that Russia has no intention of forming a group of states facing the Baltic sea or the North sea."

Q.--Will Russia accept the invitation of the Council of the League of Nations to participate in the Special Disarmament Committee (TIME, Dec. 21) which is to be called in February to prepare for an International League Disarmament Conference?

A.--"Our negative attitude regarding the League of Nations remains entirely as it was. The way to reach international agreements is not, according to us, that which is proposed to us. There is another way open--by direct and immediate agreements with all the other countries on all questions that interest us. ...

"The Soviet cannot accept the invitation to the preparatory dis- armament conference committee because we fear it will prove only dilatory intervention. . . . We are against years of security discussion as a preliminary to disarmament."

Q.--Do you expect the United States to resume diplomatic relations with Russia in the near future?

A.--"Economic relations have already been resumed. Without holding the view which I am about to state, I may remark that some people think that, since we are already able to do business with the United States, the resumption of diplomatic relations is not necessary. This attitude may delay progress toward the resumption of diplomatic relations. The general settlement of international affairs is impossible without us."

*"The Georgian Socialist Soviet Republic,' proclaimed at Tiflis in 1917,