The Project Gutenberg eBook, With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia, by John Ward

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Title: With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia

Author: John Ward

Release Date: February 6, 2004 [eBook #10972]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

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With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia

By Col. John Ward
C.B., C.M.G., M.P.

With Eight Plates

1920

To MY COMRADES

OFFICERS, N.C.O.s AND MEN OF THE
18th, 19th, 25th AND 26th BATTALIONS OF
THE MIDDLESEX REGIMENT

who, on sea and land, in sunshine and snow, so
worthily upheld the traditional gallantry and
honour of their people and country

FORWARD

Originally written for the private use of my sons in case I did not
return, this narrative of events connected with the expedition to
Siberia must of necessity lack many of the necessary elements which go
to make a history. I wrote of things as they occurred, and recorded the
reasons and motives which prompted the participants. Many things have
happened since which seem to show that we were not always right in our
estimate of the forces at work around us. Things are not always what
they seem, and this is probably more evident in the domain of Russian
affairs than in any other. It would have been comparatively easy to
alter the text and square it with the results, but that would have
destroyed the main value of the story.

The statesman and the soldier rarely write history; it is their
misfortune to make it. It is quite easy to be a prophet when you know
the result. You can, as a rule, judge what a certain set of people will
do in a certain set of circumstances, but where you deal with State
policy which may be influenced by events and circumstances which have