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Bolsheviks and I did not cease to insist upon the urgency of this intervention that I believed had been really decided upon and which I expected from day to day. But in spite of the official declarations of France to which I have just made allusion, this did not appear to take shape.
I insisted upon its urgency; firstly because the menace of German Imperialism was still suspended over Russia at that time disarmed and without defence, like the sword of Democles, because at any moment, the resumption of the German invasion upon one point or the other of Russian territory was to be feared; further, because the German Imperialism made it one of its duties to bleed white the regions occupied by it, notably the Ukraine, from where it could draw provisions and resources which were able to fortify it immediately and to prolong its existence: finally, because the Russian people commenced to suffer cruelly as a consequence of the German invasion and civil war, and that the Allied intervention,—it was my opinion and also my profound belief,—must, in bringing the country military aid against the invader, at the same time bring it economic aid on the largest scale. From the very first, I had insisted upon relief being afforded to the Russian people and 1 did not doubt for one moment that Allied intervention would be not only military but alimentary aid, thanks especially to the cooperation of America. The declarations of official representatives of France on this point were absolutely formal. I even remember very well that one day, our Consul General, M. Grenard, stated to a peasant dele-
