re somewhat lightened. He told me that Sykes, who had had a
long discussion with the General Staff about Armenia and Kurdistan,
had enormously impressed those who had heard him by his knowledge of
the geography and the people of those regions, and he asked why, when
Wigram and I were wearing the Russian shoulder-straps, Sykes was not;
he evidently liked our doing so. The Grand Duke Serge, who was
Inspector-General of the Artillery, was staying with the Emperor; he
also spoke about the urgent need of heavy howitzers, saying that he
hoped within a few months to be on velvet as regards field-guns and
ammunition, but that aid with the heavier natures of ordnance must
come from outside.

In conversations that we had at Mohileff, Hanbury-Williams expressed
himself as somewhat anxious about the internal situation in Russia.
General Polivanoff had recently been dismissed from his post as War
Minister in spite of the good that he had effected within a very few
months, and this was simply the result of a Court intrigue against an
official who was known to have Liberal tendencies and was a _persona
grata_ with leading spirits in the Duma. That kind of attitude was
calculated to arouse dissatisfaction, not merely amongst the educated
portion of the community in general, but also in the ranks of the
army; for in military circles the extent to which the troops had been
sacrificed as a result of gross misconduct in connection with the
provision of war material was bitterly resented. The losses suffered
by the nation in the war already amounted to a huge figure, and
although at this time the people at large probably held no very
pronounced views on the subject of abandoning the contest, there
undoubtedly was discontent. Under such circumstances, statesmanship
imperatively demanded that mutual confidence should be maintained
between the Court and Government on the one side, and the leaders of
popular opinion on the other side. The removal of Polivanoff, who was
doing so well, was just the kind of act to antagonize the educated
classes and the military. Suspicion, moreover, existed that some of
those in high places were not uncontaminated by German influence and
were pro-German at heart.

No reasonable doubt has ever existed amongst those behind the scenes
that the Emperor personally was heart and soul with the Allies: but
that did not hold good, there is every ground for believing, amongst
some of those with whom he was closely associ