39
people who if it was uneducated was at all events highly talented, fully conscious of its force, who, even in its moments of apparent inertia, nevertheless, thought aud lived, and whilst retired within itself in this tragical situation, always remained capable of the most admirable efforts.
I have already had occasion to point out that, from the very first day, M. Noulens placed the matter of intervention, as was evident from all his communications, againts the bolsheviks, as decided, whereas in reality, right up to the last moment, it was not at all decided. I was able to convince myself later on that it was only on the urgent representations of our ambassador, who had made a personal matter of it, and in consequence of pressing and repeated approaches to President Wilson, that the scheme was finally sketched out, much too timidly from the point of view of a struggle against the Germans, and in proportions which were not at all in agreement with the kind of intervention that had been announced in the most formal manner by M. Noulens.
It is just because intervention, that M. Noulens had not ceased to represent as having been finally decided by the Governments of the Entente was met by the gravest objections, that our ambassador was induced, in order to overcome the resistance (which irritated his pride) and, in order to give more force to his arguments, to prove by facts that he had fully prepared the ground, and that only a very slight effort was required to achieve the downfall of Bolshevick tyranny and to constitute a national Russian government. He went to the extent
