On May 5 the British Government informally recognized the Esthonian Provisional Government and, in the words of Mr. Balfour's communication, "reaffirmed their readiness to grant provisional recognition to the Esthonian National Council as a de facto independent body until the peace conference, when the future status of Esthonia ought to be settled as far as possible in accordance with the wishes of the population." On April 26 Transcaucasia declared its independence under a conservative Government, headed by M. Chkhemkeli. Count von Mirbach, the Royal German Ambassador to Russia, accompanied by a Turkish representative, arrived in Moscow on April 23. He was welcomed by the Chairman of the Central Executive Committee as "a representative of a power with which a peace treaty has been concluded at Brest-Litovsk, as a result of which peace, so needed by the people, was established between the two States." Pravda, the official Bolshevist daily, greeted the Royal German Ambassador as "the plenipotentiary of an armed band which with limitless audacity oppresses and robs wherever it is able to thrust in with a bloody imperialistic bayonet." ULTIMATUM ON PRISONERS Germany has shown eagerness to obtain the release and the use of the able-bodied German prisoners who are now in Russia. It is believed that there are at present upward of 1,000,000 German prisoners of war in European Russia and Siberia. It was reported on April 27 that a special German commission had arrived in Moscow to take charge of the exchange of prisoners with Russia, and that exchanges of invalids had already begun. The number of Russians in German hands is estimated at 3,000,000. An earlier official German communication explained the delay in repatriating Russians by the lack of transportation facilities. On April 29 the State Department at Washington gave out the following statement: The Department of State has learned that there will shortly leave for Russia a German commission, consisting of 115 members, which will take up the question of the exchange of Russian and German prisoners. It is reported that it is the purpose of the commission merely to present to the Russian authorities an ultimatum from Germany requiring, first, the immediate release of all German prisoners who are in good health; second, that those who are ill will remain in Russia under the care of neutral physicians, and, third, that the Germans on their side will release only those Russian prisoners in Germany who are invalids or who are incapacitated. In the event of a refusal on the part of Russia, Germany will order that Petrograd be taken.