ion of
Transbaikal Siberia. There was not a single band of Red Guards one
thousand strong in the whole territory. After nine months of Allied
occupation the Reds organised, largely under American protection, two
divisions (so called) of from 5,000 to 7,000 men, and numerous
subsidiary units of a few hundred, who murdered and robbed in every
direction, and destroyed every semblance of order which the Supreme
Governor and the Allies had with so much labour attempted to set up.
Thus this huge province in a short time descended from comparative order
to sporadic disorder, simply because America had no Russian policy of
her own, and rejected that of her friends.

It was a major mistake of England and France to leave America and Japan
cheek by jowl without a moderating influence, to wreck the good work
they had accomplished in the Far East. The rivalries of these two Powers
in this part of the world were well known and should have been provided
for. It was too much to expect that they would forget their concession
and trade rivalries in a disinterested effort to help Russia. States are
not usually philanthropic organisations, these two least of all. The
work has therefore to be largely done over again, either by us or by the
Supreme Governor, Admiral Koltchak. Or the Allies, finding the task too
great, may retire and allow this huge province, probably the wealthiest
part of the world, to recede back to the barbarism of the Bolshevik.

CHAPTER XXIII

JAPANESE POLICY AND ITS RESULTS

The lack of Allied cohesion produced by the defection of American policy
from that of the European Powers may change completely the status and
future of American enterprise in Siberia. America has transformed a
friendly population into at least a suspicious, if not a hostile, one.
Japan, on the other hand, has steadily pursued her special interests and
taken full advantage of every American mistake, until she is now looked
upon as the more important of the two.

The attitude of Japan to the Russian problem made a complete somersault
in the course of the year August, 1918, to August, 1919. When Japan sent
her 12th Division, under General Oie, to the Ussurie in 1918, she did so
with a definite policy. Her ambitions were entirely territorial in
character; they doubtless remain so. The line of her advance has,
however, completely changed. In 1918 she had made up her mind that
Germany was bound to win the war; that Russia was a conquered co