State for Air, Sir Samuel Hoare, of the Secretary of State for War, Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, and others, not to mention those holding similar opinions in the Conservative party, like A. T. Cook, who, at the Conference of the Conservative party at Scarborough, on the 17th October, 1926, called the Soviet Government "a group of international bloodsuckers" (Morning Post of the 18th October, 1926), like Commander Locker Lampson, Sir William Davison and others. The press of the governing Conservative party abounds in still more violent attacks on the U.S.S.R., defaming from day to day Soviet institutions, the Soviet Government, and its representatives in London, and spreading the most improbable fantastic inventions regarding the situation in the U.S.S.R. It is impossible, moreover, not to observe that the representatives of Great Britain in Moscow, who enjoy the same privileges as the diplomatic representatives of other countries, have never been subjected by the Soviet press to the insults and defamations to which the representatives of the Soviet Government in London have been subjected on the part of the English Conservative press.

5. It is impossible to find, either in the Soviet press in general or in the very articles and speeches to which reference is made in the British Government's note, violent outbursts against Great Britain and inventions regarding Great Britain of a similar nature to those which are detailed above. It is impossible, really, to regard as anti-British propaganda an analysis and estimate of the foreign policy of the British Government and of its relation to the Soviet Union, or reasonings based on general principles on the part of party workers on the inevitability of a world revolution, on the significance of the national revolutionary movement in the East, much less still the idea expressed by the People's Commissary for Health respecting the significance of physical culture from the point of view of the revolutionary labour movement, or the appointment, which has no relation whatever to Anglo-Soviet mutual relations and which has been accepted by the Italian Government, of Citizen Kamenev, who had expressed within the limits of his party work one or other view regarding the problems of his party, as Ambassador to Italy. As for the "Izvestiya," which is considered the official organ of the Central Executive Committee of the U.S.S.R. in the sense that in it all decrees and enactments of the Government are obligatorily printed, that newspaper is one of the most widely circulated newspapers which serves hundreds of thousands of readers and is bound to give all information interesting these readers, including appeals and resolutions of Soviet as well as party institutions. The institution which publishes it can as little be responsible for the contents of appeals and resolutions of that kind as for what is communicated in the newspaper regarding declarations and utterances of an anti-Soviet character, including also communications regarding the speeches of English Ministers which have been quoted above. It must once more be repeated that the printing of any material or any verbal utterances within the confines of the U.S.S.R. is not a contravention of any undertakings whatever assumed by the Soviet Government.

6. The special displeasure of the British Government is evoked apparently by the opinions expressed by Soviet public men regarding the anti-Soviet direction of British policy, in third countries. But surely it would be possible with no less right and foundation to describe as obsessions the constant references of politicians and of members of the Government of Great Britain to the fancied ubiquity and all-powerfulness of the so-called "Soviet agents," who are represented as to blame for each and every difficulty of the British Empire in pretty well every corner of the globe.

in

7. The Soviet Government greatly regrets the unsatisfactory state of Anglo-Soviet relations which is referred to in the note of the British Government. It considers, however, that to explain this melancholy phenomenon as due to mutual recriminations and the hostile tone of the press of the two countries would be to give cause as effect and vice versa. The Soviet Government would also consider it lacking in correctness and undignified to seek for explanations of the phenomenon the physiological or psychological peculiarities of one or other British statesmen. It is inclined to think that the abnormality of these relations is expressed not only in the fact that the representations of the two countries. do not correspond to the interests of the development of relations between Great Britain and the U.S.S.R. The point also is that in its treatment of the Soviet Union the British Government deliberately departs from generally accepted international standards and customs and even elementary decencies, that it periodically hurls at the Soviet Government general accusations in the form of bare assertions, refusing even to discuss them, that it avoids the settlement of mutual claims and grievances either by the diplomatic channel or by means of special conferences, commissions or delegations, that it, refusing the usual diplomatic ways of regulating disputes, allows itself to converse with the Soviet Government in a tone of threats and ultimatums, that it, finally, ignoring the constitution of the U.S.S.R., obstinately endeavours in its notes to substitute for the formal Government of the Union party or even international institutions. The same abnormality of relations has found expression also in the fact that the British Government in its note allows itself an unheard-of and unprecedented tone in regard to the People's Commissary for Foreign Affairs of the U.S.S.R.. citizen Chicherin. The régime established by the British Government in regard to the Soviet State fosters and encourages that hostile campaign which finds its expression in utterances highly insulting to the U.S.S.R. in the English Parliament, both on the part of Members of Parliament and even also of members of the Government, and in the English press. This campaign is appraised in the public opinion of the U.S.S.R. and in the speeches and articles of Soviet public men, the enumeration of which constitutes the main contents of the British note. It should be added that the constant attempts of the British Government to minimise or even to eliminate altogether the significance of the fact of the resumption of diplomatic relations, together with the entirely reliable information

in the hands of the Soviet Government recently published regarding the still-continuing relations and attempts to come to an understanding between individual members of the British Cabinet and former Tsarist diplomats and representatives of counter-revolution working for a second intervention, do not allow the public opinion of the people of the U.S.S.R. to forget the part which Great Britain played in the first intervention.

8. At the end of his note Sir Austen Chamberlain thought it timely and proper to put forward a threat of complete rupture of commercial and diplomatic relations in case of non-fulfilment by the Soviet Government of new demands which do not arise from existing Anglo-Soviet agreements and mutual formal undertakings. Declaring that threats in regard to the U.S.S.R. cannot intimidate any one at all in the Soviet Union, the Soviet Government allows itself to express the conviction that the conclusion of the Trade Agreement of 1921, as also the later resumption of diplomatic relations, corresponded to the interests and needs both of the peoples of the Soviet Union and of the British Empire. If the present British Government considers that the cessation of Anglo-Soviet commercial and all other relations is called for by the needs of the English people and will be for the benefit of the British Empire and of the cause of universal peace, it, of course, will act accordingly, taking upon itself full responsibility for the consequences arising therefrom.

9. The Soviet Government on its part confirms that the declarations of the late Krassin, quoted in the British Government's note, regarding the desirability of the removal of all the difficulties which exist between the two countries and of the causes for mutual complaints and regarding the desirability of the establishment of completely normal relations, actually correspond to the unchanging sincere desires of the Soviet Government. Fulfilling the will to peace on the part of the toiling masses of the Soviet Union, in full harmony with the similar strivings of the wide masses of the people of Great Britain the Soviet Government will in the future too follow its peace-loving policy, which excludes all aggressiveness in regard to other countries. It will sincerely welcome steps taken to meet it, on the part of the British Government, on the same path to peace. Requesting you, Sir, to bring the above to the knowledge of the British Government, I request you to accept, &c.

M. LITVINOV.

DOCUMENTS

illustrating the Hostile Activities of the Soviet Government

and Third International

against Great Britain

Presented to Parliament by Command
of His Majesty

LONDON:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE To be purchased directly from H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE at the following addresses: Adastral House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2; 120, George Street, Edinburgh; York Street, Manchester; 1, St. Andrew's Crescent, Cardiff;

15, Donegall Square West, Belfast;

or through any Bookseller.

1927

Price 6d. Net

Cmd. 2874