character that she has all the raw
material for her trade and all the space she requires for her surplus
population. Her help, unlike that of any other State so far, has been
unselfish and unconditional. Ghondati quite saw that "this fact was
producing a steady and permanent orientation of Russian opinion towards
England, which, if cultivated by British statesmanship, would eventually
give my country everything she required, while those whose help was
always surrounded with conditions would have great difficulty to retain
the advantages they secured only under the pressure of circumstances."

CHAPTER XXII

AMERICAN POLICY AND ITS RESULTS

At Nikolsk my train was stopped as the No. 4 Post train from Vladivostok
had been wrecked by Bolsheviks, a startling situation considering that
eleven months previously the whole power of Bolshevism had been
destroyed in these maritime provinces. The station commandant was an old
friend, who had given me his own private official carriage at the time
when our little yellow brother had decided to lower the prestige of his
white Ally in Eastern eyes by making British officers travel in
cattle-trucks. He came into my car and began to explain how the
cross-purposes of the American and Japanese forces were producing a
state of uncertainty and disorder as bad, if not worse, than existed
under the Bolshevik regime. Our conversation was cut short by the
receipt of a telegram from the station-master at Kraevesk. It was to the
effect that he was using his own line from his house, because a few
minutes previously a detachment of the Red Guard had entered the station
and, in the presence of the American soldiers who were guarding the
railway, had placed himself and his staff under arrest and taken
possession of the station; that the Reds had sent a message to Shmakovka
ordering all Russian railway officials and staff to leave their posts,
as the Bolshevik army, with the sanction of the American forces, was
about to take over the line. The Red Guard officer in proof of his order
stated "that fifteen American soldiers are now standing in the room from
which I am sending this message." Having issued these orders in the
presence of the Americans, they had removed the telegraph and telephone
apparatus, and the station-master wished to know what he was to do and
whether any help could be sent him. Imagine my utter astonishment at
this message, containing, as it undoubtedly did, evidence of
co