At Hong-Kong I had suggested that we might find tents useful, but the proposal was turned down, either because there was none or because they were considered quite unnecessary.  I asked timidly whether I should require mosquito nets, and well remember the scorn with which the Chief of Staff greeted my question.  “Who ever heard of mosquitoes in Siberia?” Well, the fact is that while there are a few in the tropics, there are swarms of these pests all over Siberia.  In the tropics their size prevents them from doing much damage, except as malaria carriers.  In Siberia they take the shape of big, ugly winged spiders, which will suck your blood through a thick blanket as easily as if you had nothing on.  They have a knack of fixing themselves in one’s hair below the cap and raising swollen ridges round one’s head until it is painful to wear any headgear at all.  In my case my wrists were puffed out level with my hands.  After sleeping, one woke unable to open one’s eyes.  The absence of any protection wore out the patience and nerves of the men, and the searching Bolshevik shells were accepted as a welcome diversion.

No blame was attached to my chiefs; I was fully equipped as a B1 Garrison battalion, and as such I was dispatched to Vladivostok.  I was sent there to perform a certain duty, but on arrival was at once called upon to perform another of quite a different character.  I had to carry out the duties of a first-line service battalion with the personnel and equipment of second grade garrison troops.  Whether those with whom the order originated in London were aware of the nature of the duty I was expected to perform I do not know; but it is obviously dangerous to send British troops of any category to an actual scene of operations and expect them to stand idle, uninterested spectators of the struggles of their friends.  They should either be kept away or sent ready for all emergencies.

CHAPTER II

BOLSHEVIK SUCCESSES

The outflanking movement by the enemy which I had anticipated from the day I first took over the command, and which I had made my plans to counteract, was now in full swing, but so far no damage to our main position had been effected.

General Detriks visited the front and informed me that the Allied Council had chosen Major Pichon, of the French detachment which was timed to arrive next day, to take over the command of this front.  After a personal inspection he expressed himself as satisfied with my dispositions and suggested that I should still retain the command, and that he would see that the decision relating to Major Pichon’s appointment was reconsidered in view of the changed conditions he now found.  But I could see that a revision of the Allied Council’s resolution might affect French amour propre, and place both Council and commander in an anomalous position.  I therefore requested General Detriks to take no steps to alter