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Russia and our information about the need for help
among the Russian population was very vague.
Despite repeated reminders, we had never received
any answer to our questions. I therefore took the
opportunity to ask the Russian Red Cross delegate
if he could make some suggestions. I explained to
him that we felt an honest desire to help, but needed
to know how our relief should be planned. The
Russian delegate was extremely polite but also quite
evasive. He did not give me any real answer. Finally,
I asked quite frankly the reason why Russia was
evidently not very kindly disposed toward the
Swedish Red Cross. After I had pressed him on this
point, he said that in Russia one could not understand
why the Swedish Red Cross had awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize to the International Committee of the
Red Cross. I replied laughingly that we had nothing
to do with the matter, as this prize is awarded by a
committee appointed by the Norwegian Parliament.
The Russian delegate rejoined that in theory this was
certainly the case, but that in reality the Swedish
Red Cross must have exerted great influence before
the awarding of the prize. I assured him that we had
not had the remotest notion about who would receive
the Peace Prize, and, as everyone else, we only learned
of the result through the press and the radio. This
information seemed to hit home, and my Russian
colleague stressed that this was exeedingly interesting
to him.
My reason for relating this episode is that it seems
to me a new evidence of the value of personal
contacts, especially in international relations. The
suspicion Which characterized the Russian attitude toward
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