I came to the conclusion that it was more of a military movement on the part of the Bolshevik leaders than a strike such as we understand it in England.  I gave my decision that the men’s leaders were to be tried by General Field Court-Martial.  The men’s committee then said that they had never had the chance to meet anyone in authority before, that they were anxious not to appear as enemies to the great English people, that if I would carry out no further repressive action against them, they would continue to work until the end of the war.  They heard that Bolsheviks were approaching their town, and knew the tortures in store for them if they were found continuing to help the Allies in their advance to the Urals.  If I would secure protection for them they would sign an agreement never to strike until the war in Russia had ended.  I believed them, and the agreement was signed, but I insisted upon disarmament.

That evening the time limit in which the arms were to be handed in expired.  We were informed by the local militia that some arms were handed in voluntarily, but many more remained.

The following morning a train with General Knox and his Staff pulled into the station.  I reported the whole occurrence to the general, and how I had received and sent forward notice of his coming and the object of his journey.  It was here that he informed me of the outrage which the Japanese officers had perpetrated upon him, in spite of the fact that a big Union Jack was painted on the side of each carriage of his train.

The inhabitants of Zema were just congratulating themselves on having got rid of the “Anglisky” when they suddenly found machine guns in position ready to spray all their main thoroughfares with lead should the occasion arise.  Sections of the town were searched, house by house, until the piles of arms necessitated transport to remove them.  Real sporting guns which could be used for no other purpose, and the owner of which was guaranteed by the local police, were returned.  In some houses dumps of looted fabrics from other towns were taken possession of, and altogether work for the courts was found for the next two months.

The echo of Zema travelled far and wide, and gave the authorities an object-lesson how to tackle a cancer as deadly as it was devilish.  When Kerensky destroyed the old Russian army sixteen million ignorant and uneducated soldiers took their rifles and ammunition home.  This was the insoluble problem of every attempt to re-establish order in the Russian dominions.  The Middlesex Regiment made the first plunge at Zema, and others soon followed along the path indicated.  We re-armed the local militia, and we took the remainder of the confiscated arms to Omsk, where they were taken over by the Russian authorities for the new Russian army.  I wired to Irkutsk for reinforcements for the local militia, as I did not think them strong enough to deal with the possibilities of the situation.  The commandant at Irkutsk wired that he had information which proved there was no truth in the rumoured approach of Bolshevik forces, which reply I knew from the experience I had gained in Russian ways merely indicated his determination not to weaken his own guard.