of Treachery In a criticism of Allied action in Siberia in an address to members of the City United Wards Club, Colonel John Ward, x.P., told the story as he had heard it of how Admiral Koltchak died.
Koltchak, said Colonel Ward, was persuaded to accept the task of establishing some form of stable government at Omsk, and the policy he enunciated to him (Colonel Ward) was such a policy as we stood for in the Government of this country. When the Allies finally decided to desert Koltchak, they not only deserted him but they did something infinitely worse. In his retreat Admiral Koltchak arrived at Irkutsk, then in charge of Czech troops, from whom the emissaries of Lenin and Trotzky demanded the surrender of the Admiral.
"T do not know the exact facts," added Colonel Ward, "but it seems beyond a shadow of doubt that this man, whom the Allies had brought from the Black Sea to London here, and then taken to Peking where he received his final instructions, and ultimately to Omsk, to carry out their policy under pledges which not even an ordinary gaanbler would repudiate, was left to chance when the Allies unally decided to withdraw their support. When his enemies demanded his life, it is stated that the French General, the Commander-in-Chief of all the Allied forces there, surrendered this man to his enemies in the middle of the night. He was tried by three of the Red Army leaders, and within an hour this mau, around whom centred for the time being the whole life of Russia, was destroyed in a backyard. Desertion can go no further than that. Even having changed their policy towards the Bolsheviks, the Allies were not compelled to go to the length of absolute treachery, and yet that was done. And now I am told—although General Knox, who was our Commander-in-Chief out there, repudiates it—that some of our Allies are mean enough to try to make out that the British were consulted and agreed to the surrender. We never agreed to anything of the kind. They must take the responsibility upon their own shoulders; it does not belong to us. General Knox fears that a
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