Mr. Balfour in the House of Commons on Friday week
made an important statement in regard to Russia. He was, he said, an optimist about Russia, but not about her immediate future. Unlike Revolutionary France, Revolutionary Russia had destroyed her Army and Navy and had become disintegrated. We must wait to see how the new Russia would be constituted, and meanwhile a remorseless enemy was doing as he pleased with her. If Japan were to intervene, it would be as the friend and not the enemy of Russia. The danger of German action in Siberia was not remote. At this moment a German officer would be much safer travelling at large through Russia than an Allied officer, because German penetration had struck at the root of Russian power. The only bank allowed in Moscow was a German bank. The Allies might supply the force which Russia leaked to protect her resources from passing under German control. Germany was promoting disorder in Russia so that, when the time came, she might secure the support of the classes which suffered from anarchy for a new autocracy dependent on German aid. The Allies were considering how they might best give Russia the help which she needed. Japan had behaved with perfect loyalty, and would keep any promises that she might give with regard to Russia as honourably as she had kept all other promises. The Allies' sole object was that Russia should be strong, intact, secure, and free.
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