al Knox had brought together personnel and stores sufficient
to justify belief in the early success of his plans. Then there suddenly
arose another sinister figure which threatened to upset all our
calculations--namely, a well-timed revolt of the railway workmen,
calculated to cripple our communications and make the movement of troops
and supplies impossible.

CHAPTER XVI

RUSSIAN LABOUR

General Dutoff, as I have previously recorded, had informed us that
Bolshevist agitators had passed through our lines on this treacherous
mission, and for months nothing had been heard of these emissaries of
mischief. Now that we were approaching the critical point of the 1919
operations rumblings of an unmistakable character were heard in all
directions. The necessary military measures had been taken, but in our
English eyes suppression was not enough. We have learnt in our country
that the workmen are the backbone of the State, and that when labour is
badly paid the heart of the State is diseased. Russia has no ideas about
labour at all. The autocracy never gave it a moment's consideration. The
last Tsar's idea of labour reform was to abolish good vodka, and he lost
his life. The officer class, that forms so large a proportion of Russian
life, never gave the subject five minutes' consideration. There is not a
single general labour law upon the statute book of Russia, and the
horror of it is that those who have hitherto pretended to lead the
Russian workman refuse to demand laws to protect their labour. They
believe that "law" is the last thing that a workman robbed of the most
elemental rights should think about; that the only way for a workman to
obtain rights is to abolish all "law." And this they have done with a
vengeance! The professional Russian labour leader is an anarchist and
nothing else, and in Bolshevism he has given a glimpse of his policy in
practice.

This, then, was the problem with which we had to deal, and with only a
few weeks at our disposal. To the Russian workman it was a social
question; to us it was both social and military. Finally, General Knox
asked me to undertake a pacific propaganda along the railway to see if
it were possible to persuade the workmen to keep at work and give the
best service possible to their country to secure the restoration of
order. I came to the conclusion that if anything could be done to give a
more staple and practical outlook to the Russian labour mind it was well
wo