"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية: العمليات في بلاد فارس ١٩١٤-١٩١٩" [و‎‎٢‎٢‎٢] (٥٦٦/٤٤٨)

TRAN S-CASPIA
393
tliattjlii
entlyml
i oa 114
Gerii^'
brought about by an expenditure of two million roubles, and
General Malleson himself thought that the chances might
warrant risking this sum.
On the same day as this telegram was received at Simla
another telegram arrived from the Kashgar Mission giving a
restmi of the situation in Turkestan, derived from reports from
Sir George Macartney, Colonel Bailey and Major Blacker, who
had all reached Tashkend from Kashgar in August. This
Mission had left Kashgar before our troops had intervened in
Trans-Caspia and it had been impossible to stop it. The
Turkestan Soviet had naturally regarded it with great suspicion,
but Sir George Macartney had been able to convince the
Bolshevik leaders that it had come from the British and Indian
Governments and was entitled to some consideration. Sir
George Macartney and Major Blacker had managed, not without
difficulty, to leave Tashkend again on the 14th September and
return to Kashgar. But Colonel Bailey had remained, as his
position seemed fairly secure.* Their report confirmed the
general and intense hatred towards the Bolsheviks and also the
possibility of their being turned out of power by the Left
Social Revolutionary party, who without being pro-British
favoured the continuance of the war against Germany; and it
also said that there was a constant and universal cry for British
intervention and British occupation. The native population,
desiring tranquillity and security, would welcome any party or
foreign intervention affording this. Nine thousand of the thirty
thousand or so Austrian and German prisoners of war had been
forced to join the Red Army, in which they exceeded the
number of real Russians. They could control the whole country
if they could obtain arms and ammunition and they might
become masters any day, in which case Germany could have
Turkestan. They had instructions, it was said, from their own
Governments not to leave Turkestan, as they might be required
to play an important part later. But actually most of them
wished only to be repatriated and had no desire to fight against
the Allies or to remain in Turkestan.
The War Office were asked by the Commander-in-Chief in
India if they considered that the expenditure of the two million
roubles was justified by the general Russian situation. But
they replied that, as their experience during the past year had
shown that financial assistance to anti-Bolshevik Russian
* There was subsequently considerable anxiety about him, as he was
obviously in. danger. But he eventually succeeded in escaping safely.