554 THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN BRITISH CAPTIVITY 555 Handing out to us with one hand the papers entitling us to a safe conduct to Russia and demonstrating thereby its loyalty towards the amnesty which to them appeared so unreliable, the consulate could with its other hand furnish its secret information to the British authorities, hoping that its activity in this direction would prove to be at any rate more reliable.
Whether or not this supposition is correct, to verify this, you, Mr. Minister, at the present time are possessed of better facilities than am. But, apart from its correctness, apart from the entire mysteriousness of this matter, the fact remains in all its force, that British authorities, on a neutral vessel, arrested seven Russian citizens and two children, who were on their way to Russia with documents issued by the Russian consulate, kept these Russian citizens for a month under conditions which could not be termed as other than shameful, and liberated them from captivity under conditions which cannot be called anything but a mockery of those whom they released, and of the government at whose request they were freed. These facts are undeniable. And there is left to me, without going into the region of general political considerations and, therefore, without going beyond my official communication to you, to formulate the following queries: Don you, Mr. Minister, consider it necessary, to take immediate steps to make the British government and its agents in the future treat the elementary rights of Russian citizens who appear to get into the zone threatened by English authorif not with respect, then, at least, with care?
Don you consider it necessary to accomplish the following. a) To cause the British government to apologize to the sufferers for the lawlessness and indignities perpetrated upon them. b) to insist upon the punishment of the agents of the British government who are guilty of those indignities irrespective of the offices they hold. c) to obtain from the British government compensation for damages sustained by us by reason of loss and theft of property belonging to us, during the searches and transportation, and for our unlawful arrest for the period of one month?
Upon my arrival in Petrograd acquainted myself with the official communication of the British Ambassador regarding our arrest at Halifax. Mr. Buchanan stated that we, who were detained, were going in pursuance of a plan, fully arranged and subsidized by the German government, to overthrow the Provisional Government (as it was at first constituted. This information about money received by me from the German Government caps the climax of the conduct of the British Government towards Russian emigrants, a conduct made up of violence, sneaking falsehood and cynical slander. Do you consider it, Mr. Minister, as perfectly proper that England should be represented by a person who has stained himself with such shameless denunciation, and who has not moved a finger to rehabilitate himself?
Expecting your reply, have the honor to remain, Very respectfully yours, TROTZKY.