"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية: العمليات في بلاد فارس ١٩١٤-١٩١٩" [و‎‎٢‎٤‎٠] (٥٦٦/٤٨٦)

THE CAUCASUS AND THE CASPIAN
423
had a great moral effect. Next day a Bolshevik destroyer was
sighted, but retreated at full speed without attempting to fight;
and till the end of the month, when the Bolshevik fleet at
Astrakhan was frozen in, no further encounters occurred.
By the end of November, three more ships had been armed,
which brought the total number in the British squadron up to
eight and Captain Washington had requested the Admiralty to
reinforce it, by sending via Batum and Baku from eight to
twelve coastal motor boats. On the 1st January, 1919, the
control of the British Caspian flotilla was transferred to the
Mediterranean Command.
On the 14th December General Thomson reported that the
Tartar leaders, being convinced that they could not stand alone
and having no desire to return to government by Russia, had
expressed a desire to send a delegation to the Peace Conference
to request that Azerbaijan should be put under British pro
tection. Two days later the War Office repeated to General
Marshall a telegram sent to General Milne on the 11th December
informing him that, for the time being, Allied policy in the
Caucasus was to ensure compliance by the Turks with the
Armistice terms and to re-open the railway and oil-pipe line
between the Black Sea and the Caspian. The Allies desired to
see strong independent states in Georgia, Daghestan and Russian
Azerbaijan. The question of Armenia and of its and the other
States’ protection had not yet been settled. But H.M. Govern
ment had no intention of converting them into a British pro
tectorate or of undertaking commitments involving the per
manent maintenance of large forces in those districts. What
ever steps were taken should, therefore, be such as would not
involve us in any long-continued obligations to the inhabitants
and as would be consistent with the complete independence o
these States
General Milne’s troops did not occupy Batum till the 27th
December and up to that time General Thomson, with on y a
small force (which General Marshall was unable to remtorce)
at his command, had a very difficult task in attemp mg o
restore order. Germans under Kress remained at er ?
they retained control of the wireless installation and m rigue
with the Georgians and Bolsheviks, whose possible advance
into Trans-Caucasia the Georgians regarded with g rea a ?S
hension. The Turks took every opportunity to try to delay
the evacuation of their troops, which was in any case re
difficult by the state of the railways; and they con i
plunder and destroy property and commit outrages