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had not the right to refuse after being nominated by the Party. It was reported to me, with what firmness and dignity Joffe stood up (often successfully, so much civic courage did he show) to the insolent pretensions of the bureaucrats and generals of Wilhelm, recollecting, despite the dreadful diminuition of territory, momentarily imposed upon Russia, that he spoke in the name of a great nation, unjustly unrecognized and that he had to defend, not only party interests, but ail the interests represented before German Imperialism by his party, that is to say the interests of the whole Russian people, without exception even of those unconscious elements who, instead of morally supporting him, their Ambassador, in his difficult task, endeavoured by their acts and words to discredit hom and the Government of the Workers' Soldiers' and Peasants of Russia, which, during the worst of storms had firmly held aloft the Red standard, the emblem of justice, truth and peace, in fruitful productive labour.
In these circumstances I did not feel justified in associating myself, even by my silence, with the hidden, inhuman, anti-French and absolutely unjustified work of our agents in Russia and, after much hesitation and long reflection, I resolved to bring the whole unfortunate business to the direct knowledge of the President of the Republic, to point out to him all its criminal folly, and to draw his attention to the fact that the power of the Workers' Soldiers' and Peasants' of Russia had just given proofs, in the face oi danger, of what it was really capable as a revolutionary government, and that it was impossible to treat it otherwise than as
