from Irkutsk on the last stage of its journey to the Supreme Governor.
The governor's aide-de-camp informed me at the same time that the
admiral was starting for the front at 5 P.M. on February 7.

General Knox was anxious that there should be no evidence of weakening
in our support of the Omsk Government, as in case of disorder our
position was by no means secure. After consultation it was decided to
offer the admiral a personal guard for his journey, to consist of fifty
men and one officer from the Hampshire Regiment. This was accepted and
referred to the Chief of Staff for confirmation. It was then reported to
General Ganin and the French Staff. They at once protested that to have
a purely English guard would lower French prestige in the eyes of the
Russians. They quite agreed that there ought to be a guard, but it must
be half English and half French, and to this we at once agreed. We
therefore reduced our number to twenty-five. Then, however, the French
Staff pointed out that they had no troops in Omsk, and they could not
leave the Staff without a cook. The greatest number of orderlies they
could spare was nine, so it was suggested that the guard should consist
of forty-one English and nine French soldiers. This took the
negotiators' breath away entirely; the first proposal was destructive of
French prestige, the second was enough to destroy France altogether!
Really France is much too beautiful and gallant a country to have this
sort of stuff put forward on her behalf, but there it was. So the
admiral's guard consisted of nine soldiers with one officer of each
nationality--twenty all told.

One point we did get home on. At the time appointed for the admiral's
departure, an English guard of honour miraculously appeared on the
scene, together with Russian and Czech guards. There _could_ be no
French--yet French prestige continued to stand just as high as ever it
did. I give these facts in the most friendly spirit, but with a hope
that English officers will always understand that, however much we smile
at the peculiar gyrations of the word "prestige" as understood by our
Continental neighbours, it is very real to them, and strange exhibitions
of it are seen on occasions.

The Supreme Governor had arrived and shaken hands with the Russian,
English and Czech representatives, including Sir Charles Eliot, the
British High Commissioner, and General Bowes, the Chief of the British
Military Mission to the Czecho-Slovaks.