ur of great extent on the Arctic coast
which was never frozen over, simply asking to be made use of. Not
until a state of affairs, which ought to have been foreseen, arose in
actual war--the Baltic and exit from the Black Sea barred by hostile
belligerents--was anything done. A British company was trying hard to
obtain powers to construct a railway to Murmansk at the time of the
outbreak of hostilities; but a line was not completed till more than
two years had elapsed and was then of the most ramshackle character.

It was not only from the United Kingdom and from France that war
material and other goods were being conveyed by sea to Russia, but
also from America; and it was infinitely preferable for these latter
to take the easterly route to the northern ports of the empire, than
for them to take the westerly route across the Pacific to Vladivostok,
involving a subsequent journey of thousands of miles along a railway
that was very deficient in rolling stock. Matters in connection with
Lord Kitchener's contracts in the United States were in the hands of
Messrs. Morgan on the farther side of the Atlantic, with a
Russo-British Commission on the spot watching developments.
Responsibilities in connection with the transactions in this country
had come under charge of the Ministry of Munitions. My branch noted
progress, kept the General Staff informed, and represented the War
Office in connection with the subject when questions arose. Experience
of these huge American contracts fully bore out what had occurred at
home in connection with the expansion of munitions production on the
part of the War Office after the outbreak of war--only in a somewhat
exaggerated form. Whereas in this country output began to intensify
rapidly within twelve months and the credit was appropriated by Mr.
Lloyd George, owing to intensification for which the War Office was
solely responsible taking place after the setting up of the Munitions
Ministry, output only began really to sprout in the United States
about sixteen months after the start. All, however (as already
mentioned in the last chapter), was full of promise when the crash of
the Revolution came to nullify what had been achieved.

Up to the date of that disastrous event, and even for a few weeks
subsequently, one did one's best to accelerate the supply and the
despatch of war material from this country to Archangel and, after the
closing of that great port by ice, Murmansk, which was just