morning. An Anglo-Russian brigade of infantry was in
course of formation and seemed likely to prove a great success. It
offered employment for the numerous officers and N.C.O.s who had arrived
and for whom no proper place for work had so far been provided. It was
truly a stroke of genius for our War Office to flood us with officers
and men as instructors for the new Russian army, scarcely one of whom
could speak a word of Russian! I feel sure the Russians and ourselves
will get on well together, we are so much alike. Omsk and Whitehall are
true to type; they each first exhaust the possibility of error, and when
no wrong course is left, the right road becomes quite easy. The only
difference is in the motive. Ours is mostly because social influence is
always on the side of educated mediocrity, and theirs because self,
coupled with corruption, is their natural incentive to all exertion. We
have a different standard; all our theories of Government preclude the
possibility of hidden personal advantage in the transaction of State
business. The Russian view is that no competent official could be
expected to conduct business transactions for the State unless he
personally gains some advantage. If an official neglected a private
opportunity so obvious, it would justify the suspicion that his scruples
would make him unequal to the proper protection of the State. In other
words, the official who is poor at the end of a decent term of office
never should have been trusted with the interests of the community. It
is strange to hear them catalogue the proved cases of corruption amongst
officials of other countries. They never forget a case of this kind no
matter in which country it occurred. They argue that they are no worse
than others, forgetting that these exceptions only prove the rule,
whereas in Russia the honest official is rather the exception. After
all, public opinion decides the standard of conduct adopted by a
country. Morals change with time, also with countries and peoples. A
harem would be a nuisance in London, but stands as a sign of Allah's
blessing in Constantinople.

I returned to Omsk on May 3 to find that the snow and ice had given
place to a storm of dust which crept through every crevice of one's
habitation and flavoured everything with dirt and grit. It was, if
anything, worse than a sandstorm in the Sudan. The Sudan type is fairly
clean, but this Omsk variety is a cloud of atomic filth which carries
with it ev