270 HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
employees of Moscow settled in London after the first Anglo-
Soviet treaty, where they proceeded to found big organiza-
tions, and how4 as the activities of these bodies extended, a
large part of the British public showed signs of deep resent-
ment. The publication of the Zinoviev letter caused an explosion
of national anger. Whether this letter, with its revelation of
Bolshevik activities in England, was genuine or forged does
not matter, if only because overwhelming evidence of the
activity of Bolshevik organizations in the bourgeois states has
since been adduced. A second period in Anglo-Soviet relations
began. Economic considerations began to predominate and
Anglo-Soviet trade to expand, the balance of this trade being
considerably in favour of Soviet Russia. Its policy of dumping
raw materials, especially timber, did considerable injury to the
Dominions in the home market. Simultaneously the propaganda
of the Third International made itself felt in the various
British spheres of influence in the East.
Thus Britain's attitude to the Soviet Union was also con-
siderably influenced by economic and political considerations.
Yet in one respect this attitude differs from that of many other
states; for the British attitude has been influenced very largely
by the treatment of British nationals in Russia, and considera-
tions of the national dignity and solidarity in general.
When two English engineers were condemned by a
Soviet court, for reasons of domestic politics, on the charge
of counter-revolutionary activities, a spontaneous wave of
indignation went through the entire country. People did
not ask whether the resulting conflict and the ultimatum
demanding the liberation of the arrested Britons would prove
injurious to British trade; British policy was dictated entirely
by the demands of national solidarity and dignity. The
attitude of the British and the insistence upon their claims
were a lesson to the world on the manner in which national
dignity, the foundation of Britain's prestige in the world,
must be maintained.