d be transferred to Vladivostok. Luckily the
arrival of the 1/9th Hampshire Territorial Battalion on January 5,
1919, under the Command of Lieutenant-Colonel Johnson, led to an
improved condition of things all round us. This officer gripped
the situation at once, and took such steps, in conjunction with
the High Commissioner, Sir Charles Eliot, that I was prevailed upon
to withdraw my request for the removal of my headquarters. Colonel
Johnson was a great accession of strength to those who held the
purely English point of view, and his battalion, recruited as it
was from my home county, helped to make all our relations wonderfully
cordial. General Elmsley replied later refusing my request, so that
everything fitted in just right.

On January 8 a parade was called to present General Stephanik with the
Legion of Honour and Major-General Knox, the Chief of the British
Military Mission, and myself with the Croix de Guerre. It was a real
Siberian day, "62 below," and in five minutes ten men had frost-bitten
ears. General Ganin, the French Commander-in-Chief of the Allied forces,
made the presentations on behalf of the French Republic, uttering a few
words to each recipient. I received the hearty congratulations of all
our friends, which kept me warm the whole day. I thanked Colonel Pichon,
who took over from me the command of the Ussurie front, and with whom I
acted for some time, for this great honour. I felt sure that my
decoration was the result of his reports upon myself while acting
together under very awkward circumstances.

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 representati