An item dated Berlin 31 October referred to reliable sources reporting that the Russian trade mission at Berlin was negotiating about buying some German ships at that moment berthed in Russian ports in the Black Sea, at Leningrad and at Vladivostok mut mostly at Murmansk. Russian shipbuilding engineers travelled the same day to Kiel to visit the shipyards over there. According to rumours they intended there to discuss the possibilities to buy small surface warships for the Soviet Union.
