“Citizens! If we have survived the blackest days in the life and history of our people, if we have succeeded in preventing famine in Petrograd, if we have managed to procure to the suffering army bread and forage by means of enormous, almost superhuman, efforts, it is because we have honestly continued and are still continuing to do our work…. “To the ‘last warning’ of the usurpers of the power we reply: It is not for you who are leading the country to ruin to threaten us who are doing all we can not to allow the country to perish. We are not afraid of threats; before us stands the sacred image of tortured Russia. We will continue our work of supplying the Army and the people with bread to our last efforts, so long as you will not prevent us from accomplishing our duty to our country. In the contrary case the Army and the people will stand before the horrors of famine, but the responsibility therefor belongs to the perpetrators of violence. _Executive Committee of the Employees of the Ministry of Supplies._ * * * * * _To the_ Tchinovniki (_Government Officials_). It is notified hereby, that all officials and persons who have quitted the service in Government and public institutions or have been dismissed for sabotage or for having failed to report for work on the day fixed, and who have nevertheless received their salary paid in advance for the time they have not served, are bound to return such salary not later than on November 27th, 1917, to those institutions where they were in service. In the event of this not being done, these persons will be rendered answerable for stealing the Treasury’s property and tried by the Military Revolutionary Court. _The Military-Revolutionary Committee._ December 7th, 1917. * * * * * _From the Special Board for the Supplies_ CITIZENS “The conditions of our work for the supplying of Petrograd are getting more and more difficult every day. “The interference with our work—which is so ruinous to our business—of the Commissars of the Military Revolutionary Committee is still continuing. “THEIR ARBITRARY ACTS, their annulling of our orders, MAY LEAD TO A CATASTROPHE. “Seals have been affixed to one of the cold storages where the meat and butter destined for the population are kept, and we cannot regulate the temperature SO THAT THE PRODUCTS WOULD NOT BE SPOILT. “One carload of potatoes and one carload of cabbages have been seized and carried away no one knows where to. “Cargoes which are not liable to requisition (_khalva_) are requisitioned by the Commissars and, as was the case one day, five boxes of _khalva_ were seized by the Commissar for his own use. “WE ARE NOT IN A POSITION TO DISPOSE OF OUR STORAGES, where the self-appointed Commissars do not allow the cargoes to be taken out, and terrorise our employees, threatening them with arrest.