it was known, was accepting a regular subsidy
from the Japanese to enable them to resist the extension of the
admiral's power towards Vladivostok, and it was under their instructions
and protection Semianoff refused to recognise the authority of the Omsk
Government and issued insolent manifestos against the Supreme Governor.
The peasants inhabiting the western side of the Baikal seized upon this
fact and said in their proclamations that inasmuch as Colonel Semianoff
had refused to allow Koltchak's orders to operate on the east side, and
was supported therein by one of the Allies, there was every reason why
they should do the same on the west side of the lake. It shows what a
tremendous influence Japan had either to create order or to make order
impossible. She and Semianoff between them provided these revolters with
just the argument they needed. By so acting Japan created and extended
the area of anarchy and made the task of her Allies and Koltchak more
difficult than it might otherwise have been.

This may not be a very logical position for the peasants to have taken
up, but anyone who knows anything about Russia will see that it fitted
their psychology to a fraction. These people are more ignorant than our
worst educated agricultural labourers. They own and live on huge tracts
of land, in most cases as large as a great English estate. Their method
of living is many stages below that of our landless farm labourer. Their
ignorance is colossal, their cupidity and cunning the envy of the
Armenians, who openly confess that in a bargain the Russian peasant
beats the Jew to a frazzle. The order of the Soviet Government to the
peasants to take possession of the landowners' estates and property was
the trump card which Lenin and Trotsky played to secure immunity in the
provinces while they massacred and robbed the property owners in the
towns. These men, who are the natural enemies of all political progress
and social reform, and who should have exercised a steadying effect upon
the empty idealism of the professional classes, were too busy robbing
their neighbours to be able to exert any influence upon the major events
of the revolution. While perfectly willing to use the revolution--whose
principles they abhorred--for their own personal aggrandisement, this
wealthy peasantry are now equally unwilling to render the slightest help
in the restoration of order.

It was with profound interest that I read these documents, which