BRITAIN AND BOLSHEVIKS.

UNOFFICIAL RELATIONS ESTABLISHED.

Answering questions as to our diplomatic relations with the administration of Petrograd, asked by Mr J Ramsay Macdonald and Mr. King in the House of Commons yesterday, Mr. Balfour said: “We have not recognised that administration as being “de facto” or “de jure” the Government of the Russian people, but we carry on necessary business in an unofficial manner through an agent acting under the direction of our Embassy at Petrograd. The Bolshevik administration have appointed M. Litvinoff as their representative in London, and we are about to establish similar unofficial relations with him. M. Nabokoff, who was the Chargé d’affaires under the late Republican Russian Government, will presumably remain in London until he is either confirmed or superseded in his post by a Government recognised as representing the Russian people. The present arrangement is obviously both irregular and transitory. Though it cannot be fitted into any customary diplomatic framework, it is, in our opinion, the best that can be devised to meet the necessities of the moment.