g some dark and criminal plot. Secretly
despatching a message to Admiral Kolchak, they put a number of questions
to him which he was not qualified to answer without first consulting his
official advisers in Paris. Yet these advisers were not apprised by the
Secret Council of what was being done. Nay, more, the French Foreign
Office was not notified. By the merest chance I got wind of the matter
and published the official message.[271] It summoned the Admiral to bind
himself to convene a Constituent Assembly as soon as he arrived in
Moscow; to hold free elections; to repudiate definitely the old regime
and all that it implied; to recognize the independence of Poland and
Finland, whose frontiers would be determined by the League of Nations;
to avail himself of the advice and co-operation of the League in coming
to an understanding with the border states, and to acquiesce in the
decision of the Peace Conference respecting the future status of
Bessarabia. Kolchak's answer was described as clear when "decipherable,"
and to his credit, he frankly declined to forestall the will of the
Constituent Assembly respecting those border states which owed their
separate existence to the initiative of the victorious governments. But
the Secret Council of the Conference accepted his answer, and relied
upon it as an adequate reason for continuing the assistance which they
had been giving him theretofore.

About the person of Kolchak it ought to be superfluous to say more than
that he is an upright citizen of energy and resolution, as patriotic as
Fabricius, as disinterested and unambitious as Cincinnatus. To his
credit account, which is considerable, stands his wonder-working faith
in the recuperative forces of his country when its fortunes were at
their lowest ebb. With buoyancy and confidence he set himself the task
of rescuing his fellow-countrymen when it looked as hopeless as that of
Xenophon at Cunaxa. He created an army out of nothing, induced his men
by argument, suasion, and example to shake off the virus of indiscipline
and sacrifice their individual judgment and will to the well-being of
their fellows. He enjoined nothing upon others that he himself was not
ready to undertake, and he exposed himself time and again to risks
greater far than any general should deliberately incur. Whether he
succeeds or fails in his arduous enterprise, Kolchak, by his preterhuman
patience and sustained energy and courage, has deserved exceptionally