第 31 节
作者:
泰达魔王 更新:2022-08-21 16:34 字数:2723
tubes will be wanted every six months。 Now on the 15th of June the total
stock of tubes ready for use was 58;000; and the railways could not expect
to get more than another 13;000 in the near future。 Unless the factories
are able to do better (and their improvement depends on improvement in
transport); railway repairs must again deteriorate; since the main source of
materials for it in Russia; namely the dead
engines; will presently be exhausted。
On this there is only one thing to be said。 If; whether because we do
not trade with them; or from some other cause; the Russians are unable to
proceed even in this first stage of their programme; it means an indefinite
postponement of the moment when Russia will be able to export anything;
and; consequently; that when at last we learn that we need Russia as a
market; she will be a market willing to receive gifts; but unable to pay for
anything at all。 And that is a state of affairs a great deal more serious to
ourselves than to the Russians; who can; after all; live by wandering about
their country and scratching the ground; whereas we depend on the sale of
our manufactured goods for the possibility of buying the food we cannot
grow ourselves。 If the Russians fail; their failure will affect not us alone。
It will; by depriving her of a market; lessen Germany's power of
recuperation; and consequently her power of fulfilling her engagements。
What; then; is to happen to France? And; if we are to lose our market in
Russia; and find very much weakened markets in Germany and France; we
shall be faced with an ever…increasing burden of unemployment; with the
growth; in fact; of the very conditions in which alone we shall ourselves
be unable to recover from the war。 In such conditions; upheaval in
England would be possible; and; for the dispassionate observer; there is a
strange irony in the fact that the Communists desire that upheaval; and; at
the same time; desire a rebirth of the Russian market which would tend to
make that upheaval unlikely; while those who most fear upheaval are
precisely those who urge us; by making recovery in Russia impossible; to
improve the chances of collapse at home。 The peasants in Russia are not
alone in wanting incompatible things。
95
… Page 96…
THE CRISIS IN RUSSIA
96