With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia

John Ward

Description

Originally written for the private use of my sons in case I did not return, this narrative of events connected with the expedition to Siberia must of necessity lack many of the necessary elements which go to make a history. I wrote of things as they occurred, and recorded the reasons and motives which prompted the participants. Many things have happened since which seem to show that we were not always right in our estimate of the forces at work around us. Things are not always what they seem, and this is probably more evident in the domain of Russian affairs than in any other. It would have been comparatively easy to alter the text and square it with the results, but that would have destroyed the main value of the story.

Sujets

• Histoire
• World War I

Informations

• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 23 octobre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819900399
• Langue: English

Extrait

FORWARD
Originally written for the private use of my sons incase I did not return, this narrative of events connected with theexpedition to Siberia must of necessity lack many of the necessaryelements which go to make a history. I wrote of things as theyoccurred, and recorded the reasons and motives which prompted theparticipants. Many things have happened since which seem to showthat we were not always right in our estimate of the forces at workaround us. Things are not always what they seem, and this isprobably more evident in the domain of Russian affairs than in anyother. It would have been comparatively easy to alter the text andsquare it with the results, but that would have destroyed the mainvalue of the story.
The statesman and the soldier rarely write history;it is their misfortune to make it. It is quite easy to be a prophetwhen you know the result. You can, as a rule, judge what a certainset of people will do in a certain set of circumstances, but whereyou deal with State policy which may be influenced by events andcircumstances which have not the remotest connection with thequestion involved, it is impossible to give any forecast of theirconduct on even the most elementary subject.
The recent tragic events played out in the vastdomain of Siberia are a case in point. It is certain that AdmiralKoltchak would never have gone to Siberia, nor have become the headof the constitutional movement and government of Russia, if he hadnot been advised and even urged to do so by the Allies. He receivedthe most categorical promises of whole-hearted support and earlyAllied recognition before he agreed to take up the dangerous dutyof head of the Omsk Government. Had these urgings and promises beenungrudgingly performed a Constituent Assembly would be now sittingat Moscow hammering out the details of a Federal Constitution for amighty Russian Republic or a parliamentary system similar to ourown.
On the declaration of the Koltchak Government,General Denikin, General Dutoff, General Hovart, and the NorthRussian Governments made over their authority to Omsk. There was atonce a clear issue – the Terrorist at Moscow, the Constitutionalistat Omsk. Had the Allies at this juncture translated their promisesinto acts, from what untold suffering Russia and Europe might havebeen saved!
The mere act of recognition would have created awonderful impression on the Russian mind, in addition to giving theAllies a lever by which they could have guided the course of eventsand stabilised the Baltic. It would have given security to Russianfinance, and enabled trade relations to have commenced with thewealthiest part of the Russian dominions.
The reconstruction of Russia, about which the Alliestalk so glibly, would have gone forward with a bound by naturalmeans, which not even Allied bungling could have prevented. TheOmsk Government could have got money on better terms than any ofthe Allies, because, accepted within the comity of nations, itcould have given better security than any of them, even includingAmerica. Europe would have been fed, Russia would have beenclothed, and the world would have been saved from its greatesttragedies. All this and more would have naturally followed from thebarest performance of our promises.
We did worse than this. Breach of promise is only anegative crime. The Allies went to the other extreme; their helptook the form of positive wilful obstruction. The Japanese, bybolstering up Semianoff and Kalmakoff, and the Americans, byprotecting and organising enemies, made it practically impossiblefor the Omsk Government to maintain its authority or existence. Themost that could be expected was that both would see the danger oftheir policy in time to avert disaster. One did; the other leftwhen the evils created had got beyond control. Koltchak has notbeen destroyed so much by the acts of his enemies as by thestupidity and neglect of his Allied friends.
As the Bolshevik rabble again sweeps over Siberia ina septic flood we hear again the question: "How can they do sounless they have a majority of the people behind them?" I answerthat by asking: "How did a one-man government exist in Russia from'Ivan the Terrible' to Nicholas II?" Both systems are autocratic;both exist by the same means – "Terror." There is, however, thisdifference. The autocracy of the Tsars was a natural product froman early form of human society. The Bolshevik autocracy is anunnatural product, and therefore carries within itself the seed ofits own destruction. It is an abortion, and unless it rapidlychanges its character cannot hope to exist as a permanent form oforganised society. It is a disease which, if we cannot attack, wecan isolate until convalescence sets in. There is, however, thepossibility that the patient during the progress of the malady maybecome delirious and run amok; for these more dangerous symptoms itwould be well for his neighbours to keep watch and guard. Thismadness can only be temporary. This great people are bound torecover, and become all the stronger for their present trials.
JOHN WARD.
February, 1920.
CHAPTER I
F ROM HONG-KONG TOSIBERIA
The 25th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment hadalready such a record of travel and remarkable experiences to itscredit that it was in quite a matter-of-fact way I answered asummons from Headquarters at Hong-Kong, one morning in November,1917, and received the instruction to hold myself and my battalionin readiness to proceed to a destination unknown. Furtherconferences between the heads of departments under the presidencyof the G.O.C., Major-General F. Ventris, revealed that theoperations of the battalion were to be conducted in a very coldclimate, and a private resident at tiffin that day at the Hong-KongClub simply asked me "at what date I expected to leave forVladivostok?"
The preparations were practically completed whenorders to cease them were received from the War Office at home,followed by a cable (some time in January, 1918) to cancel allorders relating to the proposed expedition. So we again settleddown in Far Eastern home quietly to await the end of the war, whenwe hoped to return to the Great Old Country and resume the normallife of its citizens.
Things remained in this condition until June, 1918,when we were suddenly startled by an order to call upon the half ofmy battalion stationed at Singapore to embark on the first shipavailable and join me at Hong-Kong. This seemed to suggest that thetruly wonderful thing called "Allied Diplomacy" had at last made upits mind to do something. After a great deal of bustle and quiteunnecessary fuss the whole battalion embarked on the PingSuie on a Saturday in July, 1918.
It should be remembered that my men were what werecalled "B one-ers," and were equipped for the duty of that grade;but, after our arrival at Hong-Kong, Headquarters had called inmost of our war material to replenish the dwindling supplies ofthis most distant outpost of the British Empire. Very littleinformation could be gathered as to the kind of duty we mightexpect to be called upon to perform, and the ignorance of the Staffas to the nature of the country through which we were to operatewas simply sublime. Added to this, most of the new material withwhich we were fitted was quite useless for our purpose. Thosethings which had been collected on the first notice of movement in1917 had been dispersed, and the difficulty of securing others atshort notice was quite insurmountable.
The voyage was not remarkable except that onetyphoon crossed our track not ten miles astern, and for eighteenmiles we travelled alongside another, the heavy seas striking theship nearly abeam, and causing her to roll in a very alarmingmanner. The troops had a very uncomfortable time, and were glad tosight the coast of Korea and the calm waters of the Sea ofJapan.
At Hong-Kong many of the men, including myself, hadsuffered much from prickly heat, which had developed in many casesinto huge heat boils. It was very strange how rapidly theseirruptions cured themselves directly we reached the cool, clearatmosphere of the coast of Japan.
Elaborate preparations had been made for ourreception, insomuch that we were the first contingent of Alliedtroops to arrive at Vladivostok. Two Japanese destroyers were tohave acted as our escort from the lighthouse outside, but they wereso busy charting the whole coastline for future possibilities thatthey forgot all about us until we had arrived near the innerharbour, when they calmly asked for our name and business. Earlynext morning, August 3, they remembered their orders and escortedus to our station at the wharf, past the warships of the Alliednations gaily decorated for the occasion.
At 10 A.M. a battalion of Czech troops, with bandand a guard of honour from H.M.S. Suffolk , with CommodorePayne, R.N., Mr. Hodgson, the British Consul, the President of theZemstrov Prava, and Russian and Allied officials, were assembled onthe quay to receive me. As I descended the gangway ladder the Czechband struck up the National Anthem, and a petty officer of the Suffolk unfurled the Union Jack, while some of the armedforces came to the present and others saluted. It made quite apretty, interesting and immensely impressive scene. The battalionat once disembarked, and led by the Czech band and our splendidsailors from the Suffolk , and accompanied by a tremendouscrowd of people, marched through the town to a saluting pointopposite the Czech Headquarters, where parties of Czech, Cossackand Russian troops, Japanese, American and Russian sailors weredrawn up, all of whom (except the Japanese) came to the present aswe passed, while Commodore Payne took the salute for the Alliedcommanders, who were all present.
Our barracks were outside the town at Niloy-ugol;they were very dirty, with sanitary arrangements of the mostprimitive character, though I believe the local British authoritieshad spent both time and money in trying to make them habitable. Theof