the resolution of the Allied Council, and stated that I would gladly serve under Major Pichon or any other commander elected by the Council.  British prestige, I added, was too well established for such trifles to be considered when the only reason for our presence was to help our Czech and Russian friends.  He, however, pointed out that it was impossible to allow a British colonel to serve under a French major, and that my command must be considered quite an independent one.

Major Pichon arrived on August 18, 1918, and I formally handed over the command.  He asked me to consider myself as jointly responsible for the operations on that front, and said that we would from time to time consult together as to any action that might be necessary.  I found him both polite and considerate and most anxious to meet the wishes of the several parts of his command; in fact, he was a gentleman whom it was a pleasure to meet and work with.  His battalion-commander, Major Malley, was equally urbane, and together I think we made a very happy combination.

The great outstanding personality of this front was Captain Stephan, the commander of the 8th Czech Battalion.  Originally a brewer of Prague, he had been compelled on the outbreak of war to join the Austrian Army.  He had done his duty as a soldier of that effete Monarchy, been captured by the Russians, and while a prisoner of war had been liberated by the Revolution; he was one of the men who had organised their fellow exiles and offered their services to France and the Allied cause, believing that in the success of England’s arms was to be found the liberation of their beloved Bohemia.  I asked him why he had offered his services to France, and his answer and his compatriots’ answer was always the same:  “It is to great England we always look to as our saviour, but the German armies are in France, and to meet our enemies on the field of battle was, and always will be, the first ambition of every Czech soldier, for if England says we are a nation, we know we shall be.”

I must say I felt flattered by the almost childlike confidence which Pole, Czech and Russian had in the name and honour of England.  We were undoubtedly the only nation represented on this front and in Siberia generally against whom not one word of suspicion was directed.  I naturally expected that the prestige of France, in view of her pre-war alliance with Russia, would be very great, but from the closest observation of all ranks of Russian society I think it would be impossible to say which was most suspected in the Russian mind, France, America or Japan.  The presence, however, of French soldiers, and the politeness of the French officers, may do much to generate a warmer feeling in Russia towards France.  The presence of the soldiers of the Rising Sun, and the manners and general attitude of her officers towards the Siberian population, will, if persisted in, certainly result in changing fear to universal hate.