Note 910 — Chapter XV

There are various statements about the date upon which Lamsdorff learned of the treaty. See Iswolsky, Recollections of a Foreign Minister, pp. 49 f.; Savinsky, Revue des deux mondes, XII (1922), 798; A. Nekludow, “Autour de l’entrevue de Bjoerkoe,” Revue des deux mondes, March 1, 1918, p. 139; Nekludow was a secretary in the Russian embassy in Paris in 1905 (Witte, p. 426; Savinsky, p. 114). The correct date is given in a dispatch from Lamsdorff to Nelidow on Oct. 9, where the Foreign Minister stated that he was first told of the treaty by the Czar just before the latter’s departure for Finland on Aug. 30 (or Sept. 12, according to the new calendar). See Kriegsschuldfrage, Nov., 1924, p. 487. The Czar excused his delay to Lamsdorff on the grounds that he had promised William II to preserve secrecy. See ibid., p. 487; Savinsky, Revue des deux mondes, XII (1922), 798 f.; cf. Iswolsky, pp. 49 f.