not the remotest connection with the question involved, it is impossible
to give any forecast of their conduct on even the most elementary
subject.

The recent tragic events played out in the vast domain of Siberia are a
case in point. It is certain that Admiral Koltchak would never have gone
to Siberia, nor have become the head of the constitutional movement and
government of Russia, if he had not been advised and even urged to do so
by the Allies. He received the most categorical promises of
whole-hearted support and early Allied recognition before he agreed to
take up the dangerous duty of head of the Omsk Government. Had these
urgings and promises been ungrudgingly performed a Constituent Assembly
would be now sitting at Moscow hammering out the details of a Federal
Constitution for a mighty Russian Republic or a parliamentary system
similar to our own.

On the declaration of the Koltchak Government, General Denikin, General
Dutoff, General Hovart, and the North Russian Governments made over
their authority to Omsk. There was at once a clear issue--the Terrorist
at Moscow, the Constitutionalist at Omsk. Had the Allies at this
juncture translated their promises into acts, from what untold suffering
Russia and Europe might have been saved!

The mere act of recognition would have created a wonderful impression on
the Russian mind, in addition to giving the Allies a lever by which they
could have guided the course of events and stabilised the Baltic. It
would have given security to Russian finance, and enabled trade
relations to have commenced with the wealthiest part of the Russian
dominions.

The reconstruction of Russia, about which the Allies talk so glibly,
would have gone forward with a bound by natural means, which not even
Allied bungling could have prevented. The Omsk Government could have got
money on better terms than any of the Allies, because, accepted within
the comity of nations, it could have given better security than any of
them, even including America. Europe would have been fed, Russia would
have been clothed, and the world would have been saved from its greatest
tragedies. All this and more would have naturally followed from the
barest performance of our promises.

We did worse than this. Breach of promise is only a negative crime. The
Allies went to the other extreme; their help took the form of positive
wilful obstruction. The Japanese, by bolstering up Semianoff and
Kalmakoff, and the Ameri