GERMAN CONFESSION.

Patea Mail, Volume XLV, 18 February 1921, Page 3

GERMAN CONFESSION.

WHY LENIN WAS LET LOOSE

London., December At

A public statement has been made by General Hoffman, who was formerly Chief of .Staff of the German Eastern Armies, that Lenin was scut into Russia for the express purpose of breaking the Russian front. Hoffman is now foremost among those Gormans who fear so greatly the danger of Bolshevism for their own country that they call for an international campaign against Moscow under the leadership of Foch, Pershing, or any other chief the Allies might wish to appoint in order once for all to rid the world of the menace which Germany herself brought into it.

".Vs Chief of staff on the Eastern Front," says General Hoffman in an interview. "1 controlled our section for propaganda in the ranks of the Russian Army. During the war the General Staff of course used every possible means to break the Russian front. One of these means was poison gas, another was Lenin. The German Government sent Lenin through in a sealed sleeping car with a definite purpose in v iew. Lenin and his friends broke up the Russian Army with our consent. Herr von Kuhlmann, Count Canrivi. and I concluded the BrestLilovsk Treaty with the Bolsheviks in order to be able to throw our army into the Western Front.

"Whilst we were negotiating with these gentry in Bresr-Litovsk wo were lirmlv convinced that thev would nor

remain in power for more than two or three weeks. On my word of honour, admitting thru l.eniu and Trotsky had rendered us inestimable services, we neither knew nor foresaw what consequences the help we gave the Bolsheviks to travel to .Russia would have for mankind. Otherwise we would

! never in any circumstances whatever i have-entered into relations with them. ] But then we weighed the consequences j just as little as the Entente is weighj ing them to-day. "Would the Allies, ! and especially Lloyd Beorge be deal- ' ing with the Bolsheviks and bargain- | ing for concessions with them jf rimy j reckoned with, the terrible menace ' with which Bolshevism confronts us.’