of Foreign Affairs in this country states that shots were fired at M. Thomas, the Minister of Munitions, in the course of one of his war speeches at the Russian front.

  The disorganisation at the front is described by an officer or
  soldier at the front in the same organ, the Rabocaja Gazeta for
  May 26, as follows: 

“The passionate desire for peace, peace of whatever kind, aye, even a peace costing the loss of ten governments (i.e. districts), is growing ever more plainly evident.  Men dream of it passionately, even though it is not yet spoken of at meetings and in revolutions, even though all conscious elements of the army fight against this party that long for peace.”  And to paralyse this, there can be but one way:  let the soldiers see the democracy fighting emphatically for peace and the end of the war.

The Pan-Russian Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Delegates’ Councils and the Army Organisation at the front in St. Petersburg June 1-14 took for its first point in the order of the day the following:  “The War, questions of defence and the struggle for peace.”  At this time the Government would doubtless have to give a declaration with regard to the answer already received at the beginning of June from the Allies as to their war aims.  This congress will also probably decide definitely upon the nomination for the Stockholm Conference and appoint delegates.  Point 4 deals with the question of nationality.  An open conflict had broken out between the Petersburg Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputy Councils and the Ukrainian Soldiers’ Congress, sitting at Kieff, on account of the formation of an Ukrainian army.  The appointment of an “Ukrainian Army General Committee” further aggravated the conflict.

With regard to the increasing internal confusion, the growing seriousness of the nationality dispute, the further troubles in connection with agricultural and industrial questions, a detailed report dealing separately with these heads will be forwarded later.

Towards the end of November I wrote to one of my friends the following letter, which I have given in extenso, as it shows faithfully my estimate of the situation at the time: 

  Vienna, November 17, 1917.

MY DEAR FRIEND,—­After many days, full of trouble, annoyance and toil, I write to you once more in order to answer your very noteworthy observations; to be in contact with you again turns my thoughts into other channels, and enables me, for the time at least, to forget the wretchedness of every day.

You have heard, you say, that matters are not going so well between the Emperor and myself, and you are sorry for this.  I am sorry myself, if for no other reason than that it increases the friction of the daily working machine to an insupportable degree.  As soon as a thing of this sort leaks out—­and it does so fast enough—­all