Page:Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin - Two Years of Foreign Policy (1920).pdf/12

 Soviet Government had addressed a communication to the German Government asking for definite information as to whether the latter considered the terms of the Brest-Litovsk treaty as still in force and what measures it intended to take to stop the military operations which were still continuing and which were clearly infringing the peace treaty between Russia and Germany, and requesting the German Government if it had any new demands to make of us, to inform us clearly and precisely. In reply to this the German Government consented to the creation of a "political commission" for the definite settlement of the remaining questions between Russia and Germany. Simultaneously the excessive economic claims of the German representative in Moscow and the attempsattempts [sic] of the Russian bourgeoisie, hiding behind the former, to wrest back from the Soviet Government their expropriated wealth, demanded the speediest conclusion of the economic agreements which were provided for by the Brest treaty and which were only indicated by this treaty in their most fundamental features, Therefore simultaneously with the members of the Russian "political commission" our delegates to the "economic commission" also left for Berlin.

While our relations with Germany were slowly but steadily becoming more stable, the danger from the other side was increasing. Even during the Kerensky period Japanese intervention was hanging over Russia as a sword of Damocles, as a means of punishment by the Entente. In March, 1918, the Japanese press was energetically preparing public opinion for intervention in Siberia. In the meantime, Wilson sent his message of greeting to the Fourth Congress of the Soviets, and on March 14 the American Ambassador Francis declared at Vologda that the United States was willing to support Russia in her struggle against Germany. The Entente thus had at this time two policies and had not yet agreed on one. The American diplomatists, and also some of the British diplomatists, who were acting in Soviet Russia, aimed to draw Soviet Russia