BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY, 1919-39         169
throughout, declared that agreement had been reached. A
general and a commercial treaty were signed on August 8th. A
loan was to be guaranteed if and when a second treaty satis-
factory to British creditors had been reached. Parliament
adjourned on August yth, after a short debate in which criti-
cism outweighed approval. Opinion in commercial circles was
almost unanimously hostile, and the Liberal leaders announced
their opposition as loudly as the Conservatives. Since Labour
was in a minority in the House of Commons and the country,
the scheme had no chance of success. Before it could be sub-
mitted to Parliament, the MacDonald Government was de-
feated on a minor issue and swept away. The mystery of the
Zinoviefi letter to the British Communist Party, published by
the Foreign Office on October 24th, was never cleared up.
Rakovski deckred it a clumsy forgery, but the conviction that
Russian communists were still intriguing against the security
of the British Empire stampeded armies of voters into the
Conservative camp.
Recognition was not formally annulled, but the treaties
signed on August 8 were dropped and the brief rapproche-
ment was at an end. In 1926 Russia, through the Comintern,
supported the General Strike. In 1927 the Commercial Dele-
gation in London was raided by the police and expelled,
together with the Embassy staff, on the ground that a confi-
dential document had been stolen. The Trade Agreement of
1921 was cancelled, but dejure recognition remained. On the
return of the Labour Party to power in 1929, official relations
were resumed and a new trade agreement was signed in 1930.
The trial of British engineers in 1933 on charges of sabotage
and espionage revived bitter feelings. Not till 1934, when
Russia entered the League, did the thaw begin. In March,
1935, Mr. Eden's visit to Moscow set the seal on official
reconciliation, but the two peoples remained far apart.
IV. the settlement with turkey
A final settlement with the new Turkey was reached with
less difficulty. The Treaty of Sevres was dictated by the Allies
to a prostrate foe; but while the Government at Constanti-
nople was signing the surrender, Mustapha Kernal raised the
banner of independence in Asia Minor. France lost interest
in the Greek cause when Constantine regained his throne in
1920, and in 1921 a Franco-Turkish agreement ended Anglo-
French co-operation in the Near East. Mustapha's significance