THE RUSSIAN PEACE PROPOSALS.

The peace proposals offered by the Central Executive Committee of the Russian Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates are more suggestive than actually important. They are an attempt on the part of the representaties of the peasant and industrial classes of all Russia to make a real interpretation of the general policy of no annexations and indemnities declared when the Miliukof government was forced out last April.

There is no reason to see the hand of Germany in their announcement. While it is unfortunately true that the Petrograd Council is controlled by the extreme radicals or Bolsheviki the Central Executive Committee is not under foreign influence. The relations between the National Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates, represented by the Central Committee with the Kerensky government have been variable and uncertain. Recently M. Kerensky has himself been termed a 'bourgeois,' but it is still favorable that these proposals represent many of the ideas of the middle as well as of the lower classes.

The proposals themselves contain many admirable and some doubtful provisions. But whatever might be the effect of their actual adoption, they are exceedingly interesting as the sincere and earnest attempt on the part of the Russian people to solve the vexing questions which must come up sooner or later. It is for this reason that they deserve the serious consideration of the allies who would do well to make a similar trial at least in the solution of those problems which are not the less important because they are difficult or because they are seemingly subordinate to the questions of the moment.