left complained that it was a betrayal of the revo-
lution into the hands of the Entente, and there
were many Bolsheviks who said openly that they
thought it went a little too far in the way of con-
cession. On February 10th, the Executive Com-
mittee met to consider the international position.

Before proceeding to an account of that meet-
ing, it will be well to make a short summary of the
note in question. Chicherin, after referring to
the fact that no invitation had been addressed to
them and that the absence of a reply from them
was being treated as the rejection of a proposal
they had never received, said that in spite of its
more and more favourable position, the Russian
Soviet Government considered a cessation of hos-
tilities so desirable that it was ready immediately
to begin negotiations, and, as it had more than
once declared, to secure agreement "even at the
cost of serious concessions in so far as these should
not threaten the development of the Republic."
"Taking into consideration that the enemies
against whom it has to struggle borrow their
strength of resistance exclusively from the help
shown them by the powers of the Entente, and

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