SOVIET DIPLOMAT DEAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 207, 21 November 1927, Page 1

SOVIET DIPLOMAT DEAD

END OF ADOLF JOFFE NEGOTIATED GERMAN TREATY By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright. MOSCOW, Saturday. It is reported that the Soviet diplomatist Joffe, who negotiated the Treaty of Brest Litovsk in 1917, between Russia and Germany, has committed suicide. Joffe suffered from an incurable disease of the nerves which was believed to have been aggravated as the result of the downfall of Trotzky. After achieving fame for negotiating the treaty, Joffe was generally “tipped” to be the Soviet Ambassador to Britain, which country' he visited with the Soviet delegation in 1924. After that visit he was obsessed with the idea that Britain was on the verge of collapse. A pet theme of his speeches in Russia was the sunset of thfe British Empire.—A. and N.Z. Adolf Joffe was leader of the Russian Bolshevik delegation at Brest Bitovsk, which ended in February, 1919, in practically the unconditional capitulation of the Russian armies in Germany. The revolution of 1917 had released him from exile in Siberia. He was chairman of the War Council which organised the Bolshevik victory. When he became Ambassador in Berlin he took part in the preparations for the German revolution, and this led to his being given his passport by the Imperial German Government, which thus broke off relations with the Soviet. Thereafter he was |nade Commissary for Foreign Affairs and for Social Insurance. From this post he passed to that of Commissary for Soviet Inspection in the Ukraine and later held a similar post in Petrograd. In 1922 he went to Turkestan on a tour of investigation. He also attended the Genoa Conference. As Ambassador to China and Japan he conducted the negotiations with these States. In the Far Fast he had a severe illness, and it was not till 1924 that he was restored to health by Viennese doctors. Joffe was then sent to Vienna as Soviet Minister, but was soon recalled and replaced by Berzine. In October, 1925, a society was formed in Moscow under his chairmanship in aid of the Sun Yat Sen University there, whose object is to instil Bolshevik principles into the Chinese.