Later on the French Staff became aware of the nature of their handiwork and sought help and advice from the Russian military authorities about disarming their new German Legion.  A sudden descent on their quarters by another Polish unit, with some new Russian units standing by to render help if necessary, ended in these French proteges being disarmed and got back safely to their prison camp.

Allied help to Russia is like a jig-saw puzzle, a mystery even to the man who devised it.  A straight-forward recognition of the Omsk Government would have been an honest hand for honest work, but where would Allied diplomacy have come in?  Diplomacy is only necessary when there are ulterior objects than mere plain, unambiguous assistance to a helpless friend.  What are these hidden objects?  The Allies had better be cautious how they proceed in the diagnosis and dismemberment of this great people or they may find themselves on the operating table with this giant holding the knife.  In spite of the Biblical legend I prefer England to be a pal with Goliath!

We arrived at Barabinsk on the morning of March 26, and after arrangements for the meeting were completed, took a walk round the market.  A Russian market is a thing of joy and colour.  There are no buildings:  just a huge space in the centre of the town where thousands of shaggy, ice-covered horses stand each with an ice-covered sledge.  The peasants, men and women, in huge fur coats which reach to the snow-covered ground, harmonise perfectly with the cattle they control.  Their fur coats form a study in colour—­patchwork coats from calfskins which combine every shade from white to rusty red; goatskins, from long straight black to white; curly bearskins from black to brown and brown to polar white; wealthy peasant women, with beautiful red fox furs hiding neck and face, their eyes glistening through the apertures which served the same purpose for the first and original tenant.  The sledges contain everything—­wheat, oats, potatoes, onions, rough leaf tobacco, jars of cream, frozen blocks of milk, scores of different types of frozen fresh-water fish from sturgeon to bream, frozen meats of every conceivable description, furs—­in fact, the finest collection of human necessities to be found in any one place in the world.  Prices were very high for home produce and simply absurd for foreign or distant productions.  Colonel Frank was in need of a small safety pin (six a penny at home), and found that the price was seven roubles—­14s. 3-1/2d. old money, and 3s. 6d. at the rate at which the British Army are paid.  Everything else was in proportion.

A very fine meeting was held in the works, and much good done in securing the confidence of the workmen in the efforts of the Supreme Governor, Admiral Koltchak, to create order out of chaos.

We arrived at Omsk on the morning of the 28th, and on the 29th I gave a lengthy report to Admiral Koltchak, who expressed his hearty thanks and impressed upon me the necessity of continuing my journey to the Urals.  He had received from the official heads of departments reports stating that the effect of my mission had been to improve the general attitude of the workmen all round.  And he was most anxious that this effort to enlist the workmen’s interest in an ordered State should be pushed forward with vigour.