NOTE FROM CHICHERIN TO LOCKHART, BRITISH AGENT IN MOSCOW, ON THE BRITISH LANDING AT MURMANSK 27 June 1918 Kluchnikov & Sabanin, II, p. 47 (dated 28,June)     At the desire of the working people, conscious of the identity and solidarity of their interests with those of the working masses of the entire world, the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic withdrew from the ranks of the belligerent Powers and from the war which the internal situation of Russia made it impossible for it to carry on any longer. The working people of Russia, and the workers' and peasants' Government which carries out their will, are only anxious to live in peace and friendship with all other nations. The labouring people of Russia threaten no other people with war, and no danger can threaten Great Britain from their side. The more emphatic therefore is the protest of the workers' and peasants' Government of Russia against the incursion into Russia, caused by no act of aggression on its part, of the English military detachment which has recently arrived at Murmansk. The armed forces of the Russian Republic have been instructed to defend the Murmansk coast against all foreign attacks, and the Soviet troops will hasten to perform their task, carrying out their revolutionary duty to the end, keeping guard over Soviet Russia. The People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs insists in the most categorical manner that no British armed force, nor the force ofany other foreign Power, must be found at Murmansk, a town in neutral Russia. Furthermore, the Commissariat reiterates once again the protest it has already frequently entered against the presence of English warships in the port of Murmansk and it expresses the firm conviction that the British Government will withdraw from a step which violates Russia's international position, and that the working people of Russia, who warmly desire to maintain their friendly relations with Great Britain unimpaired, will not against their will be placed in a position which is out of keeping with their most sincere aspirations. Documents on Soviet Foreign Policy [Subject] [Author] [Date]