Canadian Infantry Brigade in France.“ The Canadian troops were to be under the over-all control of the Allied Commander-in-Chief, the Japanese General Otani. General Elmsley, however, had the right to appeal , to the War Office against any order which in his opinion might imperil the safety of his force. He was authorized to correspond directly with Canada without reference to the War Office or any outside body; no appeal could be decided against him without the approval of the Canadian Government.
While the Canadians were on their way to Siberia, Allied intervention there was actively proceeding. A British battalion from Hong Kong had advanced inland with French and Italian units to the vicinity of Omsk, where they were acting as a stabilizing influence on the anti-Bolshevik forces in Western Siberia. The Americans, arriving, from the Philippines, were still near the coast, engaged in guarding military stores and forwarding supplies to the Czechs. The Japanese had advanced to Lake Baikal, but refused to have anything to do with operations farther west." What was to be the Canadian role? Borden held the sound opinion that the disposition and employment of troops should be left to Elmsley's judgement, but on ll November, before further Canadian troops could be sent, the General Armistice was signed. In its wake a wave of opposition to further participation in Russian affairs swept across Canada.
"All our colleagues", Sir Thomas White, the Acting
Prime Minister, wrote to Borden in the United Kingdom, "are of opinion that public opinion here will not sustain us in
65