communications elsewhere are absolutely unaffected. Russia is starving not because the Allies have occupied Archangel, but because tyranny and anarchy have closed the avenues of transport and the sources of supply. To reopen these is one of the first objectives of Allied intervention. (d) That the Soviet Government has not yet "proclaimed itself to the world as the champion of anarchy and of the extermination of the upper classes." This, again, is misrepresentation. The Soviet Government has repeatedly made the proclamation in question in messages sent out broadcast to Europe from the high-power wireless station in Bolshevist hands and subscribed to by one or other of the Bolshevist leaders.
Finally, Mr. Young suggests that the British Government should negotiate with the Soviet Government. The Soviet Government consists of Trotsky, Lenin, Chicherin, and the leading Bolshevist Commission. The British Government has declared these persons outlaws, and their lives are forfeit for the murder of Captain Cromie and many other crimes. The only relationship which can exist between them and the British Government is that of criminal and Judge.
My article of December 13 and the present letter deal with Allied intervention from the comparatively narrow standpoint of events in North Russia, and on first-hand evidence. Lord Milner's manly and explicit declaration of December 19 deals with the matter from a broader standpoint. It commits the country to continued intervention. The effect will be very marked in Russia, where, in the absence of any authoritative declaration on the point, fear of reprisals has constrained our Russian Allies to a more or less neutral attitude.
In the opinion of the writer, continued intervention to be effective involves the occupation of Moscow and Petrograd, together with the control, for a time, of all means of transport and communication and of the economic system in Russia generally. In order that a decision should he obtained before Revolutionary Germany unites with Bolshevist Russia in a formidable confederacy the necessary military measures should he pushed on with all speed. No one knows better than Trotsky and Lenin that their system stands or falls with their success or failure in spreading their doctrines among the working classes of the Allied nations. There are signs that the nation is becoming awake to this danger. This in itself gives reason to hope that the Government will have the support of a united nation. Of one thing the nation may rest assured—they are committed with clean hands to a good cause.
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