continuing to send troops many of whom are draftees under 
     
     Military Service Act and Order in Council now that the war 
     
     is ended." He pressed for a return to Canada of all the 
     
     Canadian forces in Siberia as soon as the situation 
     
     permitted. 112 Indeed, with the collapse of Germany, every 
     
     military argument for intervention had disappeared. Yet in 
     
     the‘ face of militant Bolshevism, anti-Bolshevik armies and 
     
     administrations which had grown up under the shelter of 
     
     Allied forces required support and protection. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Borden's reply was made on 20 November. He had 
     
     ascertained that the War Office did not intend to commit 
     
     British or Canadian forces in an offensive campaign. 
     
     Nevertheless, it was believed that their presence in Siberia 
     
     would have an important stabilizing influence and help to 
     
     prevent the country from lapsing into anarchy; for this 
     
     reason the British were adding another battalion to the one 
     
     already sent. Furthermore they would assist in training the 
     
     White armies of the new anti-Bolshevik Government which 
     
     had been set up at Omsk under Admiral A.V. Kolchak. 
     
     Experience seemed to have shown that Russian troops 
     
     would melt away" without the moral support of an Allied 
     
     contingent, no matter how small."' Borden therefore 
     
     favoured the retention of Canadian troops in Siberia until 
     
     the spring. He further recommended that "the additional 
     
     forces originally arranged for should proceed to Siberia for 
     
     the purposes indicated, as well as for economic 
     
     considerations which are manifest". 
     
    
   
   
    
     66