WHEN KOLCHAK FAILED

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 246, 12 July 1921, Page 9

WHEN KOLCHAK FAILED

NEW ZEALANDER IN THE ARCHANGEL CAMPAIGN A WITHDRAWAL THAT WAS NOT A DEFEAT "I don’t wonder people in New Zealand did not hear much about the Archangel campaign of 1919. The censor was relentless, and our letters were far more censored than were any on the Western front." The foregoing statement was made to a Dominion reporter on Saturday by a naval officer—a New Zealander who is visiting Wellington. He was with the fleet at Archangel, and was several times in action against the Bolsheviks. He stated on Saturday that had Admiral Kolchak been able to make his way across Siberia, with the White forces, it would not have been necessary to evacuate Archangel. But, unfortunately, the Red armies were too strong, and the Admiral's campaign ended in chaos, thus upsetting all the plans of the British leaders in the North.” "Had Kolchak got through," he said, "it would have been possible to send supplies all through Northern Russia and Siberia, and the Red armies would have got a nasty surprise. As things panned out, once Kolchak failed, there was no further need for British arms in Archangel." The New Zealander, according to his own statement, Ind a jolly time in the Far North. "In the first place,” he said, "people have the idea that because Archangel is in the .arctic circle one has to dress in parka and furs like the motion pictures would have the public believe. As a matter of fact, for about two months the naval people • went into whites. During that time the sun did not set. and the average temperaturq x was about 90 degrees. Cool drinks were far more acceptable than hot! Reference to the personnel of the British forces that took part in the campaign was made by The Dominion's informant. "They were mostly soldiers of fortune.” he said. "It was common to see privates wearing the DH.O. and M.C. ribbons, which denoted that m the war against Germany they had served and had been decorated as officers. Their moral was of tho best. . . . They had a great old colonel up there. He hud Deen flome kind of general in the Great War, and was attached to the Archangel expeditionary force ns commander of no regiment in particular. He had a roving commission. With a few men he would scout round and dig up a few loyalist Russian soldiers, knock them into shape, and pass them on to the main body. Included in the two thousand British troops there were many Russians —Menshiviks. as opposed to Bolsheviks—and they made good fighting'men. This old colonel hated to be awakened once he got to sleep; and on one historic occasion. when tho Navy were being entertained, he left tho party early, and went to his tent. Sure enough, as soon as he got to sleep, a 'Bolo' aeroplane camo over the ..ines, and started dropping bombs. The noise woke the colonel, and. furious, he reached for hie revolver, and fired the contents of the magazine through the tent. Just to show his con. tempt! It was a long time before he faced his mess! . . . Another amusing incident was when we entertained Army officers on board our monitor —which, by the way, had been a "Q" or mystery ship in tho war against Germany. The general was Barry Jackson; but our admiral, in replying to one of the toasts referred to him as General "Sir Jarry Backson," ar henceforth he was known bv Tommy and Tar alike.” There ' were three big monitors and three gunboats nt Archangel, added the speaker, and the Bolsheviks camped down th) Dwinn did not relish the amount of big-gun fire that was ladled out to them daily. Before the evacuation—which was in no way a disaster, but merely a common-sense withdrawal, n. force of 700(1 Bolsheviks had been demoralised by 2000 British and Russians and many guns captured. The only clever fellows the Bolsheviks possessed were the airmen, and most of them, the officer thought, were Germanr;. "We were highly amused at the dearth of news given the English Press," he concluded. 'Only ore correspondent put it across* the censor —and he was sent home in disgrace!"