The Chief shrugged. "It was all out war. The British wanted to keep
Russia in the allied ranks so as to divert as many German troops as
possible from the Western front. The Germans wanted to eliminate the
Russians. Maugham had carte blanche. Anything would have gone. Elements
of the British fleet to fight the Bolsheviks, unlimited amounts of money
for anything he saw fit from bribery to hiring assassins. What would
have happened, for instance, if he could have had Lenin and Trotsky
killed?"