on his way to visit the Ufa front.  The admiral invited me to his carriage and explained the critical situation at Omsk, but could give no reason for the sudden decision of the Commander-in-Chief to leave Omsk and meet him on the way.  I had my suspicions that the two groups of the Government had come to grips, and that each had decided to destroy the other; that Admiral Koltchak was to be sounded as to which of these groups had his favour, and that his life, and perhaps that of his British escort, would depend upon his answer.  Bolderoff and the people at Omsk were unaware of the presence of the British escort or its numbers, and while they may have discovered our joint appearance at the Ekaterinburg function, there had been no original decision to accompany the admiral to Chilliyabinsk.  That was only arranged the previous day.  In revolutions you can never be too careful, hence I gave orders to my men to load and be ready for instant action if necessary.  Orders were also issued to patrol the platform and allow no people, uniformed or otherwise, to collect near the trains, and in no circumstances were the two soldiers who were to accompany the admiral to lose sight of him for one instant without reporting it to me.  Two others stood guard at the entrance to General Bolderoff’s carriage.  When I saw the look on the face of the Commander-in-Chief’s attendants I was satisfied that my precautions were no more than necessary.

The general’s train drew into the station and Admiral Koltchak entered Bolderoff’s carriage at exactly 12 noon on November 6, 1918.  I asked my servant, Moorman, to take a “snap” of the two trains, as I felt that this conference was full of big events for Russia.  While taking the snap a returned emigrant workman spoke to Moorman in good English.  He asked who all these officers were and what they were all talking about, and when my servant informed him he did not know, the emigrant said:  “It is all right so long as they do not want to bring back the old regime, but if that is their object I can tell them that Russia will never submit to live under the old regime again.”  I thought, and think now, that in that workman’s words I heard the voice of Russia.  The conference between the admiral and the general broke up at five o’clock; it had lasted five hours.

The admiral was hungry and came into my carriage for something to eat; his servants had nothing ready as it is the Russian custom never to begin to prepare a meal till you are ready to eat it.  After the meal we talked, and from the conversation I gathered the nature of the questions discussed at his conference with the Commander-in-Chief.  He asked me whether in England our Minister for War had any responsibilities placed upon him for the supply of clothing, equipment and general condition of the British Army?  I replied that in England the Minister for War was responsible to the Cabinet and, through Parliament, to the country for the general efficiency of the British Army in