Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/359

 ance sheet is drawn up, the fact remains that the war is writing the last chapter of the history of their independence.

Before the Russian Revolution, the independence of Persia was most obviously liquidated as a direct result of the Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907.

Roumania and Greece furnish us with a sufficiently clear example of how limited a "freedom of choice" is given to small states by the struggle of the imperialistic trust companies. Roumania preferred a mere gesture to an apparently free choice, when she sacrificed her neutrality. Greece tried by means of passive opposition to "remain at home." Just as if to show most tangibly the futility of the whole neutralist struggle for self-preservation, the whole European war, represented by the armies of Bulgaria, Turkey, France, England, Russia and Italy, shifted on to Greek territory. Freedom of choice is at best reflected in the form of self-suppression. In the end, both Roumania and Greece will share the same fate: They will be the stakes in the hands of the great gamblers.

At the other end of Europe, little Portugal deemed it necessary to enter the war on the side of the Allies. Such a decision might remain inexplicable, if, in the question of participation in the muddle, Portugal, which is under English protection, had had greater freedom than the Government of Tver or Ireland.

The capitalistic captains of Holland and of the three Scandinavian countries, are accumulating mountains of gold, thanks to the war. However, these four neutral states of North Western Europe are the more aware of the illusory character of their "sovereignity," which, even if it survives the war, will nevertheless be subject to the settlement of the bills advanced by the peace conditions of the great powers.

"Independent" Poland will be able, in the midst of imperialistic Europe, to keep a semblance of independence, provided she submits to a slavish financial and military dependence on one of the great groups of the ruling powers.

The extent of the independence of Switzerland clearly appeared in the compulsory and restrictive measures adopted regulating her imports and exports. The representatives of this small federative republic, who, cap in hand, go begging at the entrances of the two warring camps, can well understand the limited measure of independence and neutrality possible for a nation which cannot command some millions of bayonets.

If the war becomes an indeterminate equation in consequence