k had recently been fought an important battle between the
Czechs and the Terrorists, and we were shown a series of photographs of
horribly mutilated Czech soldiers who had fallen into the hands of the
Bolshevik army as prisoners of war. By a section of people at home the
Bolsheviks are thought to be a party of political and democratic
idealists, but when one is brought face to face with their work they are
then proved to be a disgusting gang of cut-throats, whose sole business
in life appears to be to terrorise and rob the peasant and worker and
make orderly government impossible.

We received equally warm welcomes at many other stations, and at length
we arrived at Svagena, which is the last fairly large town before
Kraevesk, the station without a town, and very near the range of hostile
artillery. Here quite a full-dress programme was gone through by the
Czech band and the Czech and Cossack soldiers, ending with a short march
past, and speeches by the English and Russian commanders. My speech was
made along the lines of my instructions, which were mostly to this
effect: We Britishers had entered the territory of Holy Russia not as
conquerors, but as friends. The Bolshevik power had made a corrupt and
dishonourable compact with their German masters, by which the
territories of their Motherland, Russia, had been torn from her side,
and a huge indemnity wrung from her people. Under German pressure the
Bolshevik Soviet power had armed the released German and Austrian
prisoners of war, and by means of this alien force was terrorising the
Russian people and destroying the country. The Allies looked upon the
Bolshevik power as a mere hireling branch of the autocratic German
menace, and as such the enemies of British and Russian democracy alike.
We came to help, resurrect and reconstruct the orderly elements of
Russian life, and promised that if they would join us in this crusade,
we would never cease our efforts till both our enemies were utterly
defeated. And here the soldiers of the two nations made their pact, and
though it was not an official utterance it had official sanction. My
troops retired to quarters at Spascoe, which I had made my forward base.

Next morning, August 7, with my interpreter, Lieutenant Bolsaar, I
visited Kraevesk, and had a long consultation with the commander at the
front, Captain Pomerensiv. I personally examined the line right up to
the outposts, and eventually it was decided that I would send