Word: barter
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TRADE: the Communist world economic conference, in an atmosphere of glistening candelabras, ended in Moscow. The big news was the negotiation by private British traders and the Chinese Communists of a $56 million barter deal-subject to later approval by the British Board of Trade. Britain would exchange textiles, chemicals and metals in return for Chinese coal, tea, soybeans and peanut oil. Talk of textiles was meant to tantalize the depressed cotton towns of Lancashire, but the whole deal rang a little phony. Obviously what mattered to the Chinese was the other 65% of the deal-the chemicals...
...Literature," wrote Max Beerbohm, "has many a solemn masterpiece that one would without a qualm barter for that absurd and riotous one." In society, as in print, Gilbert began to establish himself as a formidable zany. When asked, for instance, if he had "seen a member of this club with one eye called Matthews," Gilbert shot back: "What's his other eye called?" He turned this compulsion for dialogue to the writing of plays, and was already the leading comic writer of the London stage when he was introduced to Sullivan...
...flannel group" is shown in Tory policy, as set out in convenient lack of detail for the election. Churchill himself is suspicious of new approaches to economic problems, and recently growled at a specialist: "You economic experts always make it sound so complicated. After all, it's only barter." (Deep and disgusted Churchillian accent on the last word.) In emphasis, the split among Tories is as sharp as it is between Attlee and Bevan. The young men, for example, want to attack monopolies immediately. There is no anti-trust legislation in Britain, and about one-third of British industry...
...like many another D.P., has been looking for a place to put down roots. Last week he found just what he wanted: a 60-room mansion bordered with a half mile of rhododendron bushes, plus 100-odd acres of rich farm land, on Long Island. It was a barter deal, reported the New York Times. Short on cash, Zog had plunked down "a bucket of diamonds and rubies" in a royal exchange. The King's spokesmen hastily sent out frantic denials. The King, they insisted, had paid an undisclosed sum in the ordinary way, by check. But the deal...
...barter agreement of last November was motivated by economic necessities, he feels, and is not highly significant...