3.  The exiles expressed the greatest possible gratitude for the presence of British troops, and said that they mistrusted their own Russian guard, though I saw nothing whatever at any time to lead me to believe their suspicions were well founded.

4.  On arrival at Harbin the exiles strongly petitioned me to accompany the train to Chang-Chun, and the officers in charge of the Russian guard being quite willing, I decided to accompany the train to the Chinese-Manchurian frontier.  We reached Chang-Chun about 2 A.M. on November 28, and the exiles left that place by themselves by train on the evening of the same day.

5.  We reached Harbin again on the 29th inst., where I parted company with the Russian guard.  We reached Vladivostok on the morning of December 2.  I immediately reported to the O.C.  Detachment, and I reported the before-mentioned facts verbally to General Knox.

6.  The conduct of the N.C.O. and men of my detachment on the journey was very good, and no increase of sickness took place amongst them.—­I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant,

(Signed) P.C.  CORNISH-BOWDEN
(Second-Lieutenant).

Vladivostok, Siberia, December 2, 1918.

I had already gained enough experience of revolutions to know that if I did not press my point vigorously Avkzentieff and Co. were as dead as mutton.  I also knew that my countrymen have a rooted dread of dictatorships, and that if Admiral Koltchak’s assumption of power was either connected with or promoted by the execution of his opponents without trial, assistance or eventual recognition by the British Government would be made almost impossible.  My own agents had discovered the place where the prisoners were detained, also that they were to be quietly bayoneted in the night, as shooting would attract attention.  I was also certain that Koltchak knew nothing about this.  The whole business was in the hands of an Officers’ Revenge Society, a body who had sworn an oath to kill just the number of Bolshevik Revolutionaries as there had been officers murdered by Trotsky’s and Avkzentieff’s people.  Both parties had similar combinations which left the marks of their foul deeds on the streets every night.

The state of affairs was such that only by a dictatorship could the most rudimentary order be maintained.  I, a democrat, believing in government of the people by the people, thought I saw in the dictator the one hope of saving the remnants of Russian civilisation and culture.  Words and names have never frightened me.  If circumstances force on me a problem for solution, I never allow preconceived notions and ideas formed in the abstract, without the experience of the actual then existing facts, to warp my judgment in deciding the issue; and I am vain enough to believe that, had the same situation presented itself to Englishmen generally, nine out of ten would act as I did.  I merely “carried on.”  The traditions of our race and country did the rest.