is, moreover, totally inconsistent with the profession of goodwill given privately by the representatives of the Soviet Government in this country. For instance, M. Krassin, late Chargé d'Affaires of the Soviet Union in London, informed me in October last that he was instructed to state that it was the real desire of the Soviet Government to remove causes of difficulty and to establish friendly relations with His Majesty's Government. Yet while this very instruction was being carried out by M. Krassin a regular campaign of public slander and misrepresentation against Great Britain was in process, and not even the Commissar for Foreign Affairs himself, who was, at least nominally, the author of these instructions, could refrain from taking part in this campaign.

His Majesty's Government are indeed well aware of the delusion under which M. Chicherin and many of his colleagues are suffering that Great Britain is continually occupied in plotting against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and for this purpose has never ceased to guide the policy of such countries as Poland and the Baltic States and Persia into an orientation directed against Soviet Russia. No impartial study of the policies of those countries, no dispassionate examination of facts and no assurances from His Majesty's Government have availed to dispel an obsession which is as illogical as it is ill-founded. Its continuance, therefore, can only be based on a rooted, even perhaps temperamental, hostility in the minds of the Soviet authorities themselves and a corresponding credulity in regard to false reports from interested informants. M. Chicherin himself, in a particularly hostile speech delivered on the 6th December to representatives of the press in Berlin, openly displayed this preference for bad over good sources of information. Out of a mass of inaccurate and tendencious statements it is only necessary to make a single selection in order to illustrate the distorted vision of British policy that appears to haunt the nervous mind of M. Chicherin. He declared that the British periodical "The Near East" had threatened Persia with trouble fomented by Great Britain if she did not show herself amenable to British desires. An examination of "The Near East" would have shown that no such threat had appeared in it, and His Majesty's Government have the right to protest against the malevolent bias which makes pure inventions the basis or support of its policy. (Appendix No. 1.)

The same credulity and hostility are shown by M. Voroshilov, People's Commissar for War, in his speech to new commanders and political workers in the Soviet army on the 17th September as reported in the Soviet press; and by M. Unschlicht, ViceCommissar for War, in his article in the "Pravda" of the 15th September. Extracts from the speeches referred to are attached to this note for purpose of reference. (Appendices

Nos. 2 and 3.)

Again, an Ambassador of the Union, M. Kamenev, was recently reported as stating that the present leaders of the Communist party devoted undue attention to the internal welfare of the Union instead

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of concentrating their efforts on revolution in foreign countries. The selection as Ambassador of a man who could make such a complaint is a curious comment on the professed desire of the Soviet Government for friendly relations with foreign countries.

Even more aggressive in its hostility towards the British Empire is the chief organ of the Communist party, the Politbureau, which, as has already been mentioned, is the real Government of Russia and which cannot escape from identification as such, despite all assertions to the contrary. It will be sufficient to quote from the speeches of one of its leading members, M. Bukharin, at the conference of the party and at the enlarged plenary session of the Executive Committee of the Communist International held in Moscow in October and November last. The following quotations will suffice as illustrations of his attitude on those occasions :

"In the event of the further victorious advance of the Canton armies, it is no Utopia to assert that a victorious Chinese revolution will find an immediate echo in the neighbouring colonial countries-India, Indonesia and Dutch India. All this makes China a mighty centre of attraction for the colonial periphery."

"The English miners' strike and the national revolution in China are, it seems to me, the chief spots where Communist parties must apply their efforts, if we do not count the Soviet Union. And I think that, as regards these three lines. of policy, we have no reason whatsoever to be pessimistic. . . .' "We must be ready for anything, and must continue to support the miners' strike with unrelaxed energy. That is why I think that it is fit and meet to end my closing speech at our Fifteenth Party Conference with the following cry: 'Hail to the English miners!' . . .

"Even should the Anglo-Russian Committee be fated to live a short life (a prospect which objectively we take into account), we have already advanced a number of auxiliary trenches, as, for instance, the Anglo-Russian Miners' Committee, &c. . . .

"It is perfectly clear that we must now concentrate the principal and central attack of the Chinese people, of the Kuo Min-tang and of the Communist party into a war against foreign imperialists. . .

"Mighty masses are marching under the Soviet star under the banner of Communism. Comrades! Our proletariat is ready to do everything to strengthen the forces of world revolution and to facilitate the process thereof. Has not our party proved that it will do everything necessary to defend the cause of world revolution? During the great English strike, during the great China revolution, our party-we can and dare to assert this has shown itself in the fore-front. And we here declare that if history shall produce still greater tasks we will throw all our forces into the scale of world revolution and will fight to a victorious finish

These attacks by M. Bukharin on the British Empire received the direct approval of the Soviet Government in a speech by M. Rykov, president of the Soviet of People's Commissars, on the 3rd November, when he congratulated the Party Conference on the unanimity with which its resolutions had been adopted.

The last two quotations illustrate the futility of the pretence that the attacks on British interests in China are not instigated and directed by the Soviet Union. The policy of encouragement and assistance to those attacks is, moreover, openly avowed by M. Karakhan, late Soviet Ambassador in Peking, in his speech at Vladivostok, reported in the "Rupor" of the 10th October, 1926. (Appendix No. 4.)

Again, M. Semashko, Commissar of Health, in a letter published in the "Rabochaya Gazeta" on the 11th September, repeats his view that contests in the domain of physical culture between Soviet citizens and foreigners are only admissible where they respond to the interests of the revolutionary movement in the country in question." The aggressive spirit is so strong that all other considerations are subordinated to the cause of revolution.

The hostile character of the contents of the Soviet press is also notorious. Disregarding other organs, it is sufficient to point out that the Izvestiya" is stated in a decree of the Præsidium of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union to be the official organ of the Central Executive Committee: its publishing office is described as a State organ not pursuing objects of commercial profit, and it is exempted from all State taxes. The Soviet Government are therefore directly responsible for what appears in it, that is to say, for such things as the letter of the Executive Committee of the Communist International in support of the general strike in Great Britain ("Izvestiya," 8th May, 1926 (Appendix No. 5)); the leading article on the same subject (Appendix No. 6); the appeal of the Moscow Soviet in support of the strike (Appendix No. 7); the manifesto of the Executive Committee of the Communist International ("Izvestiya," 26th June (Appendix No. 8)); the articles on alleged British policy in Persia (2nd and 8th October (Appendices Nos. 9 and 10)); and lastly the grossly insulting and mendacious cartoon on the front page of the issue of the 29th December (depicting the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs as applauding the execution of Lithuanian Communists): and the leading article in the same number on the same subject (Appendix No. 11).

In recording this deplorable attitude of the Soviet leaders, His Majesty's Government have no intention of embarking on a controversy with them. Publicly recorded speeches and articles in official organs are incontrovertible facts, about which no argument is possible. Nor can the Soviet Government be under the illusion that their sentiments have passed unnoticed in this country. Not only have they been reported in the daily press, but from time to time men of authority have been compelled to give expression to the indignation inspired by the open hostility of the Soviet Government to the British Empire and their public attacks on British.

interests. To embody these complaints in a formal note of protest might in the circumstances seem superfluous. But it is right that there should be no misconception in Russia or elsewhere as to the attitude of His Majesty's Government in the matter. The toleration they have shown to Soviet agents and citizens is not to be confounded wih ignorance of their designs, nor must it be taken to imply acquiescense in the unprecedented relationship between the two countries.

His Majesty's Government have persistently striven for the promotion of world-peace. In the foregoing account of the grievous outrages and injuries to British interests committed by or through the agency of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics they have drawn only upon sources of information already open to the whole world. Thus limited, it is still sufficient to show what patience and forbearance, in the face of repeated and almost unendurable provocation, have been shown by His Majesty's Government in their desire to avoid any action which might still further embitter public feeling on either side or add to the anxieties of other nations.

His Majesty's Government are not concerned with the domestic affairs of Russia nor with its form of Government. All they require is that that Government should refrain from interference with purely British concerns and abstain from hostile action or propaganda against British subjects. But they consider it necessary to warn the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the gravest terms that there are limits beyond which it is dangerous to drive public opinion in the country, and that a continuance of such acts as are here complained of must sooner or later render inevitable the abrogation of the Trade Agreement, the stipulations of which have been so flagrantly violated, and even the severance of ordinary diplomatic relations.

His Majesty's Government trust that this protest and warning will be received by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with the attention they require, and that no further cause of complaint may be given.

I have, &c.. r

AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN.

APPENDICES.

(1.)

Extract from M. Chicherin's Speech to Press Representatives in Berlin, December 6, 1926.

IT is remarkable with what brutal frankness the English periodical, "The Near East," which is in close touch with the Colonial Office, recently disclosed the relations between the British Empire and awakening Persia. It stated clearly that, if the Persian

Government did not become amenable to England, wild tribes and other similar factors would be exploited against the Persian Government.

(2.)

Extract from Soviet Press Report of M. Voroshilov's Speech of September 17, 1926.

COMRADE VOROSHILOV drew them a picture of the secret machinations of English imperialism egging on the small States, its faithful hirelings, against the Soviet Union.

(3.)

Extract from Article by M. Unschlicht in "Pravda," September 15,

1926.

THE most insatiable appetite, the greatest irreconcilability towards the U.S.S.R., is shown by England, who is expending all her efforts and means to consolidate her domination in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. In Europe England is striving to create a military bloc against us, though it be formed only of the States on our frontiers. The Baltic States, Poland and Roumania are the territories which are to be first to hurl their armed forces against By the will of English imperialism the warlike Marshal Pilsudski is dictator in Poland. Poland, Roumania and the Baltic States are arming at the expense of English capital.

KARAKHAN, the ex-Ambassador of Moscow, during his stay at Vladivostok addressed a large assembly with a report on the political situation of the moment.

After explaining the state of affairs in China, Karakhan dealt at considerable length with the accusations made against the U.S.S.R. and against him personally, as Ambassador. In order to vindicate his policy, he made the following statements :

"I would also like to say a few words about the accusations brought against the U.S.S.R.

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It appears that we are the cause of all the trouble in China. All civil commotions and unrest in China are attributed to us, and also the fact that Canton has a good army and that Feng Yu