The Executive Commission of the Bolshevik Centre is extremely gratified by the communication of the "Council of the Party School on Capri" dated 16.VIII.09, that it has nothing against "ideological control" on the part of the BC.

But in order to decide whether the BC can take upon itself this control and implement it, whether it can render literary and financial support to the school, as the Council writes about – for this it is necessary to know the affairs of the school in detail. Yet the BC knows nothing in detail about it.

If the Council of the school could discuss (as it writes) the school's relation to the BC, knowing the views of the BC from printed resolutions and from Proletary, knowing the composition of the BC from its former members – then the BC is not in a position to discuss the question of the BC's relation to the request of the Council of the school, because the BC does not know: (1) what the Council of the school is, (2) what the Executive Commission of the school is, (3) what the programme of the school is (the Executive Commission of the school promised to send it but did not send it), (4) what the current composition of the school's lecturers is, and (5) of the students in the school, (6) what the school's available means are, (7) what the intended duration of the courses is, (8) to what extent the students of the school are tied to its given location, i.e., the island of Capri, (9) whether the students of the school could come to Paris (as three members of the BC wrote to them on their own behalf), for what period, and so on.

Lacking such information, the BC can for the time being say only one thing: to all members of the Social-Democratic organisations operating in Russia, and likewise to all comrades delegated by these organisations, the BC is ready to render every possible literary and lecturing assistance in the matter of assimilating the Social-Democratic world outlook, not refusing financial assistance either, within the limits of the possible and after discussing this question in connection with assistance to local organisations.