tually cut herself free from an enormous amount of material
responsibility in case of Wrangel's failure.
Wrangel's army was not aided by us as a fighting force, and it could not
as a matter of policy be aided by us in its tragical plight after the
debacle. It had to depend on the French.
Wrangel, it is said, had a guarantee from the French that they would
ration his army when they took upon them the transport to Gallipoli and
Lemnos. France would no doubt have continued to do so but that the
conclusion of the trading treaty between Russia and England showed that
the external fight against the Bolsheviks was over, and, indeed, put
France in a highly disadvantageous position. For as long as France
retained General Wrangel she could not reasonably hope to enter into
trading relationship with Soviet Russia.
The position of the army was greatly complicated by the hundreds of
thousands of civil refugees who all, more or less, looked to Wrangel as
their leader, and grouped themselves around him--all of them, however, in
an equally parlous plight.
Curiosity to see this army took me to Gallipoli. There has been very
little sympathy in England for armed intervention in Russia; the Ironside
expedition, the Judenitch folly, the vast undertakings with regard to
Koltchak and Denikin, were highly unpopular with the masses if indulged
in by society. This was not because English people affected Bolshevism,
but because they dislike military adventures in the domestic affairs of
other nations--and also because the nation was not taken into the
confidence of the War Office in this matter. Even the name of Wrangel
has been somewhat obnoxious. When the Bolsheviks seized the Crimea there
was even a sense of relief in some quarters--the _coup de grace_ had been
given to the counter-revolutionary adventure.
France, however, had felt that in backing Wrangel she could not lose very
much if he failed, but might reap a golden reward should Fate play into
his hands. If a favourable internal revolution had occurred whilst
Wrangel held the Crimea, France would have been the favoured friend of
the new Government of Russia, but Britain would naturally have been out
in the cold. And France did not give Wrangel much material support. It
is a mistake to think that France spent any very remarkable amount on the
Wrangel expedition. But France has been much annoyed at the subsequent
trouble it has cost her. And, whereas you will find indi
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