A RUSSIAN DIRECTORY OF BRITISH MANUFACTURERS.
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We have received a copy of a work which is significant of the times; it claime to be the first Russian directory of British manufacturers, and it is DO doubt intended, ostensibly, to supply the Russian consumer with a convenient book of reference in which to find the names and addresses of the leading manufacturers of Great Britain. This is obviously its amiable purPort.
At the present time all eyes are directed to Russia, that great colossus whose trade we are determined to capture from tho foolish Germans who have so imprudently provoked the present European war just as they were on the point, of industrially. capturing the world. Hence it must be admitted that anything calculated to assist us in restor;ng the good o'.d trading relations which uead to exist years ago between this country and Russia deserve our gratitude.
A comprehensive and representative Russian trade directory of leading British firms, if published in Russia and well circulated there, Might certainly fulfil a useful object. The directory before us, which is published, by the way, by the Russo-British Trade Exchange, Ltd., of 16, Regent Street, London, W., the same address, we may add, as that of the " Russian Chamber of Commerce in London," cannot, however, be regarded as either comprehensive or satisfactory. To begin with, the work has been carelessly compiled; for instance, the firm of Vickers, whose adeertieement in indifferent Russian includes artillery, ammunition and explosives, is not to be frond among the ammunition makers in the classified list, where only one such firm is given, and that one not specially devoted to this brand' of industry, but better known as makers of black powder and blasting explosives.
The motorcar industry is represented by the Meteor Manufacturing Co., J. and E. Hall, Ltd., Vauxhall Motors, Ltd., and Messrs. Thos. Peters and Sons, Ltd. These are no doubt excellent firms, but they can hardly be described as the most representative, nor do they by any means exhaust the list of British motorcar manufacturers.
A directory of this -kind, to be of any use, must be exhaustive, or at least representative; otherwise, it is misleading. What has happened, we expect, is this: only those firms have been given a place in the directory who have consented to pay for the insertion of their names. • The directory is further disfigured by a lot of useless padding, such as descriptions of the streets of London, the proper place for which would be in a guide-book and not in a trade directory. Again, it is somewhat difficult to understand the plan on which this directory has been conceived. The names of the firms are printed in English type, whilst the articles they manufacture have been printed in Russian. A directory vvhfch is intended for the Russian reader should be printed throughout in Russian, Whilst there can be no harm in printing the names of the firms in English, these names, for the convenience of any Russian readers, should be transliterated in the Russian character as well; otherwise the directory loses its object. Russians who can read 'English can obtain their information more satisfactorily from purely English publications. Mr. Lensky, the editor, has taken praiseworthy pains to render into Russian the descriptions of the goods manufactured by his advertisers, but his Russian betrays the foreigner rather than the native, in spite of his name—and the stated connection of the office with the " Nevu.ye Vreenya."