Page:René Marchand - Allied Agents in Soviet Russia (1918).djvu/4

 qua non, of any moral support from the Church must be a solemn engagement on the part of the Allied Powers to do nothing which might menace the unity of the Russian State, to take energetic measures against the German enemy, and to take practical steps that there might be no increase in the sufferings of the Russian people, especially as regards the famine, which, thanks to German activities in the Ukraine, was already making itself terribly felt in the districts of Central Russia.

You will understand therefore, M. le Président, that in such circumstances the marked and rapid deviation from our policy, during these last months, could not but make a profound impression upon me. Nevertheless, I was constantly expecting, with the most sincere confidence, a return to our original point of view.

Unfortunately, the latest events were to ruin these vain illusions. An official meeting at which I chanced to be present recently revealed to me, in a manner I least expected, a secret activity of the most dangerous character, in my opinion, and, in any case, completely in opposition to the whole work with which I had been associated up to that day. I allude here to a private meeting held at the former Consulate-General of the United States on August 23rd or 24th, if I remember rightly, though the exact date is of no importance. The Consul-General of the United States, Mr. Poole, and our own Consul-General were present. Allied agents whose names I do not remember, but who were not personally known to me, were also present.

Doubtless, I hasten to state, neither the American Consul-General nor the Consul-General of France made the least mention at any time of some secret task of destruction; but incidentally I was made acquainted with this task by the conversation of the agents among themselves.

I learnt thus that an English agent was arranging to destroy the railway bridge across the river Volkoff, before the station of Zvanka. Now, it requires but a glance at the map to see that the destruction of this bridge would mean the complete starvation of Petrograd; the city would find itself practically cut off from all communication on the East, whence comes all the corn on which it is existing so miserably, even at present. Moreover, the author of the project stated himself all the gravity of the consequences of such action, and remarked that he was not yet certain whether he would be able to put his plan into execution.

A French agent added to this that he had already attempted to blow up the bridge of Tcherepovetz, which, as far as the provisioning of Petrograd is concerned, would have the same effect as the destruction of the bridge of Zvanka, Tcherepovetz being on the only