Page:Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin - Two Years of Foreign Policy (1920).pdf/18

 An exchange of notes in the second half of July resulted in the following agreement: the auxiliary staff of the German embassy and of the various German commissions was increased to 300 persons, and additional forces were to come to Moscow in groups of 30, without arms and without German uniforms. We on our part agreed to furnish a stronger and especially reliable force to guard the German embassy building on all sides. On July 28, the new German Ambassador Helfferich, one of the most eminent leaders in Berlin economic spheres, arrived at Moscow. His appointment clearly showed the desire on the part of Germany to strengthen its economic relations with Soviet Russia, and this precisely was the policy which was pursued by the Soviet Government and which was followed by comrade Yoffe in Berlin. Admiral Hinze, Kuehlmann's successor to the post of Secretary of Foreign Affairs, pursued a conciliatory policy toward Russia. However, owing to the growing revolutionary movement and economic dissolution, the power of German imperialism was constantly and rapidly declining. On August 7 Helfferich left Moscow to take part in a particularly important meeting of the German Crown Council. At this conference, as it has since transpired, the German Government for the first time took up the question of the swiftly approaching collapse. Instead of taking special pains to guard the German embassy in Moscow, it was decided to transfer it to some point nearer the border. Petrograd was chosen as a suitable place, and thither the German embassy departed on August 7, simultaneously with Helfferich's leaving for Berlin. However, the embassy did not stay in Petrograd, but went through Finland to Pskov, in the occupied territory. In Moscow Germany was represented by its Consul-General Hauschild. In the summer we still feared that harvest time would see the German troops marching into the interior of Russia to seize its grain. But when the time for the crop arrived it turned out that the appetite of