Mr Barnes felt that Great Britain had fully discharged her obligations to these peoples [in the Baltic States]. In his opinion, we were always backing the wrong horse. The real governing force in Russia was the Soviet Government, and he asked how long we were to continue to bolster up the various little States and temporary governments such as Denikin's and Kolchak's. If we were to go on doing this, we must get a guarantee from the United States that the Americans would stand in with us.