The Bolshevik Litvinoff sent a further reply last week to
the British Government's Note of September 7th. He declared
that Lord Curzon had been wholly misinformed, and that all his charges against the Bolsheviks were based on " forgeries." He asserted that there was no more reason to identify the Third International with the Russian Government than there was to identify the Second International—meeting at Brussels and including Mr. Henderson, " a British Cabinet Minister"— with the Belgian or British Government. This is obviously untrue, as the Third International and the Bolshevik despotism are controlled by one and the same gang. Litvinoff's denials have, we see, failed to satisfy some of his sympathizers in this country. It is perhaps a good sign that the Bolsheviks should be anxious lest the trade agreement should lapse. On the other hand, they may value it merely as giving them an opportunity for revolutionary propaganda here. Little or no trade is being done. Mr. Urquhart, the chairman of the Russo-Asiatic Con- solidated, who went to Moscow to discuss the possibility of resuming work on the company's properties, has had a fruitless journey. He could not make contracts with the Bolsheviks.
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