Proceedings of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Conference: the peace ...

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SESSION OF 10 PEBBXJAEY. 171
Baron von Kiihlmann then proposed a sitting for the next day, at
which the attitude of the Central Powers to the latest statement of
the Russian Delegation might be made known.
To this proposal M. Trotsky replied that his Delegation had now
exhausted all its power, and considered it necessary to return to
Petrograd. All communications, he added, which the allied Delegations
might make would be deliberated upon, by the Federal Russian
Government, and a reply would be given in due course.
On being asked through what channel this exchange of views
was to take place, M. Trotsky said that the Russian Delegation had
had direct telegraphic communication with Petrograd from Brest-
Litovsk. Furthermore, before the inauguration of the armistice
negotiations, an understanding had been reached by wireless, and,
moreover, there would be presently representatives of the four allied
Powers in Petrograd who might communicate with their respective
Governments. Communication might, therefore, suggested M.
Trotsky, be restored in this way.
The sitting then closed.
77. Session of 10 February,
russian account.
[From the (British) Daily Review of the Foreign Press, 15 February, 1918,
p. 877.]
Russian Wireless sends out the following
T?ie peace negotiations, Brest-LitovsJe, Fei. 10.
At the session of Feb. 10 the following declaration was made:
Trotsky :—
The object of the Sub-Commission, as we understood it, was to
give us a reply to the question to what degree the new frontier,
as proposed by the opposite side, would guarantee the right of the
Russian people for self-determination. We have listened to the
communication made by our representatives in the Sub-Commission,
and we believe that, after long discussions, the moment has come for
taking a decision.
The peoples are awaiting with impatience the results of the peace
negotiations at Brest-Litovsk. The various peoples are asking themselves
when this self-extermination of mankind—a result of selfishness
and will for domination on the part of all governing classes
of all countries—will be stopped. The war ceased long ago to be a
defensive war. When Great Britain takes African colonies, Bagdad,
and Jerusalem, then that is certainly not a defensive war. When Germany
occupies Serbia, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, and Roumama,
and captures the Moon Islands, then that also is not defensive war.
That is a struggle for the partition of the globe. At the present
this fact must be obvious to all. lu the present Imperialism war,