The meeting maintained the usual standard of interest, and the chief of the works, whose face bore traces of the tortures inflicted upon him under Bolshevik rule, was delighted with the new hope we had brought to himself and his workmen.

Our next meeting was at Taiga, and it was quite a great event.  A special platform had been erected in the big workshop, around which swarmed nearly two thousand workmen.  The people looked upon the meeting as the new birth of Russian life.  No meeting had been held for two years, except the underground gatherings of conspirators.  I appealed to the men to discard disorder and take a hand in the orderly reconstruction of the new Russian State, in which they were now guaranteed a place.  Madame Frank’s translation made a profound impression upon these toil-worn men and women.  It was clear that the people were tired of the horrors of revolution and yearned for peace and quiet.

I here interviewed General Knox, who was on his way to Omsk on important matters which had been brought to my notice.

We arrived at Novo Nikoliosk on the morning of the 23rd, and proceeded to make arrangements for the meeting to be held on the same day.  I visited the various commands, as usual, and held long consultations with General Zochinko, from whom I gathered much information as to the situation in this important district.  It was interesting to hear some news of our old friend, the Voidavoda of the Serbian band.  He and his gang had arrived from his excursion to Krasnoyarsk on the day that a banquet was held by the newly-formed Polish regiment.  As chief of his band he was invited, and delivered an oration of a particularly patriotic character which had won all Polish hearts.  He was in a great hurry to get away next morning, fearing that we were following behind.  He said nothing about our encounter, and the Russian officials became suspicious of his anxiety to get away.  They brought a squad of soldiers to examine his trucks, and found an enormous amount of loot from Krasnoyarsk, as well as contraband goods upon which he had to pay duty to the amount of 130,000 roubles.  Having squeezed this toll out of the “bounder,” they gave him a free way to Ekaterinburg, where things are very scarce, and where he would be able to sell out at a good figure.

General Zochinko told us some funny stories about the French Staff’s attempt to form a powerful counter force to Bolshevism from the German and Austrian war prisoners.  In Novo Nikoliosk the Allied Commander, General Ganin, had released some hundreds of Austrian and German Poles from the prison camps and formed them into regiments.  In his haste to get these units complete he forgot to inquire into the antecedents of the officers chosen to command them.  So careless, in fact, were the French that the Russian authorities awoke one morning to find one of their most dangerous prisoners, a well-known German officer spy, von Budburg, in full command of this alleged Allied force.  Von Budburg had, like a true patriot, taken care to choose his subordinates from men of the same type as himself.