The letter was in cipher, and he was not aware of its content until he was told that it criticized M. Bogomolov, former Soviet Ambassador to China, for being more favourably disposed towards Britain than towards a certain other foreign Power.
The letter also requested M. Yurenev to influence M. Bogomolov to divert some of the funds obtained from the sale to Japan of the Soviet interest in the Chinese Eastern Railway, Considering himself compromised by the letter, Rakovsky said, he decided to join the Japanese Secret Service, and subsequently reported to Japan painting Russia in black terms in order to arouse Japanese action against Russia—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.