Towards the middle of January the British High Commissioner conveyed to Admiral Koltchak an extremely sympathetic message from the British Government.  The French High Commissioner followed next day with a similar message from the French Government, except that it distinctly referred to the possibility of help and recognition.  The Allied representatives felt more happy and secure as a result of these felicitations than they had done for some time, and the Russian authorities began to feel it possible to press on with the work of “resurrection.”  A new page in the history of a great recovery had been added to Russian records.  Exactly four days later a wireless message came through from Paris to say that the Allied Council had declared that it could give no help or recognise either side; that the different parties and Governments existing in Russia must bring about an armistice, and send representatives to the Turkish “Isle of Dogs,” near Constantinople, and arrange a compromise with each other.  In other words, that the Bolsheviks were to be recognised as legitimate belligerents, with whom it was quite possible to shake hands and sit down to draw up an agreement as to the proper method of conducting a policy of rapine, robbery, and murder.  Needless to say, every Britisher was disgusted, and every genuine Russian patriot simply amazed.  At one swoop down went all our hopes!  We were crushed as much or more than the Russians, because we had the honour of our countries to defend, and defence seemed impossible.

A sudden reaction against the European Allies set in at once, and became so violent that a Russian gentleman made an abusive speech to the Allied officers as they sipped tea in a well-known restaurant, and the public refused to allow the guard which was called to arrest him to carry out the order.  This feeling was undoubtedly exploited by the Japanese for their own purposes.

A very tense condition of affairs existed, when on January 31 I asked for a special interview with Admiral Koltchak that I might introduce my colleague and comrade, Colonel Johnson, and talk over the situation.  The admiral was out walking by the river, quite unattended, but in full view of the guard at his residence near the river bank.  It was his first walk since his illness, and he looked quite recovered.  The talk naturally veered round to the Allied declaration in favour of the Bolsheviks and the situation it had created in Omsk.  The admiral’s attitude was quite simple.  “We can talk and make compact with every party and Government in the different districts of Russia, but to compromise with Bolshevism, or shake the hand, or sit down and treat as equals the men who are outraging and murdering the Russian people—­never!  No decent Allied Government acquainted with the facts would ever expect it.”

I asked him to consider the question as in no way decided by the Paris message, that I felt sure there must be some points connected with the decision that required further elucidation.  “Yes!” said the admiral.  “There must be some facts with which we are not acquainted, for while the British Government advise an arrangement with the Bolsheviks they continue to furnish me with generous supplies for the Russian Army.”  I left quite satisfied that he still retained his faith in the friendship of England.