ON the 25th of March 1918 the representatives of the United Councils of the First Byelorussian Convention, implementing the decision of the All-Byelorussian Congress held in Miensk in December 1917, issued the following Proclamation in that city: "A year ago, the peoples of Byelorussia, together with all the peoples of Russia, threw off the yoke of Russian Tsarism which, without consulting the people, had plunged our land into the blaze of war that ruined most of our cities and towns. Today We, the Rada of the Byelorussian National Republic, cast off from our country the last fetters of political servitude which had been imposed by the Russian Tsars on our free and independant land. From now on, the Byelorussian National Republic is to be a free and independant power. The peoples of Byelorussia themselves, through their own Constituent Assembly, will decide upon the future relations of Byelorussia with other states."