from his official mission there, I set out on April 16, 1917, with an English passport. The German submarines had begun a pitiless campaign against North Sea traffic, and the boat on which I was to have sailed from the little port of Amble on April 17 was sunk. I waited a day or two, when there came suddenly a telegram from London to say that Štefánik had returned from Russia, and a messenger calling me back to London. Thus the mishap to the boat had the advantage of enabling me to get a detailed report from Štefánik. He informed me of the development of our Legion; and he shared the view of leading Russian soldiers that the Revolution would enable the Russian army henceforth to operate more vigorously and effectively against the Germans, thanks to the removal of pro-German influences. Many leading men in the Russian army had favoured the Revolution and hoped that its achievements would be consolidated by military victory. Beneš joined Štefánik and me in London and we were able again thoroughly to discuss our future work in Europe in the light of Štefánik’s news of the work in Russia.
On May 5 I found another boat and started from Aberdeen. This time we went to sea escorted by two destroyers, and reached Bergen safely. During the night we nearly struck an enemy mine which the captain only avoided at the last moment by a smart manœuvre. This I learned next morning. From Bergen, where it was evident that Norwegian feeling was pro-Ally, I went by way of Oslo to Stockholm, spending a day there but not the night, so as to escape passport formalities. Though my passport was made out in another name, I had been warned in London that, under Austrian pressure, the Swedish authorities might interpret their neutrality in such fashion as to have me interned as an avowed enemy of Austria; and the precedent in Switzerland made prudence advisable.
Pavlu, who had been to see me in London, awaited me in Stockholm. Preparations were being made there for a con- ference of the International, especially of Scandinavian and Dutch Socialists. The International was in ebullition. In April the German Social Democrats had split into two camps at Gotha, and the Independent Socialist Party had been formed. The influence of the Russian Leninites was already perceptible—Lenin had reached Russia on April 4—pacifism was spreading and, with it, a certain pro-Germanism. I, however, went on by way of Haparanda to Petrograd. On entering the city I noticed a black cloud of ravens; evidently,
