quarters, General Beloff came out of General Lebediff's
room. A little later General Antonovsky came out of another room, and
then these two were suddenly joined by a certain Cossack general of a
very truculent type. I knew that this boded badly for order, and I
warned Koltchak's young aide-de-camp. Shortly after it was reported to
me that an attempt had been made to exchange a sham guard for the real
one at the Supreme Governor's residence. That night I held our direct
wire from Colonel Johnson to my ear till 12.30 A.M., and found that it
was tapped by Russian Headquarters. General Knox had got to know things,
and took certain action, with the result that I sent my officer to
Russian Headquarters with instructions to inform General Lebediff we
were anxious for the Supreme Governor's safety; that if any harm was
contemplated against him we should hold him responsible unless he made
us acquainted with the danger in time to avert it; further, that if the
Absolutist officers thought they could murder Admiral Koltchak and
proclaim an absolute Monarchy without the sanction of the people of
Russia they were mistaken; that whoever, whether high or low, attempted
to destroy the present Government and throw Russia back into violence
and anarchy would be treated as enemies by the British soldiers. General
Lebediff answered that he knew of no special danger threatening Admiral
Koltchak at the moment, but he thanked Colonel Ward for his offer to
help protect the Government in case of necessity.

The conspirators broke up at once, but the cunningest of the lot
remained to weave again by social strategy the continuous web of Russian
disorder. We knew that there were elements at work for a
counter-revolution quite uncontrolled by, but acting with, the
cognisance of officials of the Koltchak Administration. In revolutions
sudden outbursts on the part of even a small party may soon jeopardise
the whole organisation of State. Colonel Johnson and myself agreed that
it was necessary to concentrate our forces, and in approaching the
Russian authorities on this subject, we added further to the
demoralisation of those who were in the conspiracy. We protested that it
was our own safety that we had in view, but the conspirators did not
believe us. I knew that the admiral's train had been for some days
standing ready to take him to the front. On February 3 Omsk was informed
that the important Japanese Mission (previously referred to) had started