The position of the Government which the Germans had set up at Kieff was unusually weak.

Moreover, the ever-active Bolshevik elements throughout the whole country were now working with increasing success against our organisation.

All this rendered the work more difficult in September and October--and then came the collapse.
The difficulties of transport, too, were enormous; supplies had either to be sent to the Black Sea, across it and up the Danube, or straight through Galicia.

For this we often lacked sufficient wagons, and in the Ukraine also coal; there were, in addition, often instances of resistance on the part of the local railways, incited by the Bolsheviks, and much more of the same sort.
However great the lack of supplies in Ukraine itself, however much the limitations of our Russian means of payment may have contributed to the fact that the hopes entertained on the signing of peace at Brest-Litovsk were far from being realised, we may nevertheless maintain that _all that was humanly possible_ was done to overcome the unprecedented difficulties encountered.

And in particular, by calling in the aid of the most capable and experienced firms of grain merchants, the forces available were utilised to the utmost degree.
Finally it should perhaps be pointed out that the import organisation--apart from the before-mentioned interference of the military department and consequent fluctuations of the system--was largely upset by very extensive smuggling operations, carried on more particularly from Galicia.