Page:The Proletarian Revolution in Russia - Lenin, Trotsky and Chicherin - ed. Louis C. Fraina (1918).djvu/447

 the attention of the Bulgarian ambassador, makes it possible to maintain friendly relations in both countries.

The most favorable attitude to Soviet Russia among the Entente Powers was adopted by the United States of North America. (We remind our readers that this report was made in the beginning of July, 1918.) We want to remind you of the telegram of greetings to the Emergency Congress by President Wilson in March.

It is a public secret that at the moment when many voices were raised in favor of intervention by Japan in Siberia, the principal obstacle to intervention was the negative position of the government of the United States of North America. Our plan is to offer an economic agreement to the United States of North America, besides our negotiations for an agreement with Germany, and to Japan, as well, with which country, despite the landing of Japanese troops in Vladivostok and despite the campaign of a part of the Japanese press in favor of intervention, we hope to maintain friendly relations.

A great number of the French people adopted an unfriendly attitude towards Soviet Russia, caused by the annulment of the State debt. When the question of a possible armed invasion of Japan and may be of its allies in the Soviet domain became acute, the interview of the French ambassador in regard to the possibility of armed intervention, eventually even against the Soviet government, served as an alarming sign of a coming crisis. When the Russian government demanded the recall of the ambassador, whose declaration would prejudice the friendly relations of both countries, the French government gave no answer, and at this moment (beginning of July) the French ambassador is still present in Vologda, although the Russian government considers him merely an ordinary individual. On the other side, the French government refused to allow admission to France of Kamienev, who is traveling on a special mandate of the Russian government. Despite our continuous demands for the return of our troops stationed in France, only the invalids were sent home. Constant pressure was brought to bear in different ways upon our soldiers to induce them to continue the war in the ranks of the Russian legions. The great majority of the soldiers refused because they recognized the authority of the Soviet and approved the withdrawal of Russia from the war. On ocoount [sic] of this, many were persecuted or were sent to the African penal camp.

In the beginning of the year (1918), when the negotiations concerning the return of our troops from France were started, France proposed, as an indispensable condition, the return of the Czecho-Slovak division to France, as France was very much concerned with their fate. When the Czecho-Slovaks started their rebellion, the representative of France in Moscow declared that the disarmament of the Czecho-Slovak soldiers would be considered as an unfriendly act of the Soviet government towards France, in which opinion he was supported by the representatives of England, Italy and the United States of North America.

The English government has, on the other hand, kept its frontiers open to the agents of the Soviet government (this was, to remind the readers again, reported before the conspiracy of Lockhart, which caused the change in attitude of the English government) but also commenced negotiations with the authorized representative, Litvinof, of the Russian Soviet Republic. He