12 JANUARY 1918, Page 1

As for Russia, who went to war on behalf of

Serbia, and whose present rulers had negotiated for peace without consulting the Allies, the Prime Minister pointed out that Germany meant to keep the occupied Russian lands and secure an economic control over the rest of Russia. The Allies would be proud to fight to the end beside the new Russian democracy. But if the present rulers of

Russia acted independently, the Allies could do nothing to arrest the catastrophe. Russia could only be saved by her own people. Great Britain believed, however, that an independent Poland, " comprising all those genuinely Polish elements who desired to form part of it," was " an urgent necessity for the stability of Western Europe."