consequences resulting from any general Allied withdrawal. But Sir Robert remained firm, and the British Government had no alternative but to acquiesce in the Canadian decision.

The first Canadian party to leave Vladivostok embarked on 21 April 1919, and the last sailed on 5 June."' As the organized body of troops withdrew, Churchill made one final appeal for Canadian volunteers "to co-operate with the volunteer detachments which compose our various missions to the loyal Russian armies"."' A few volunteers from Canadian units in Siberia did remain with the British force, but by the autumn of 1919 the British contingent of approximately 2000 men, having lost Canadian administrative support, was withdrawn."'

In spite of the Allied intervention, the actual fighting in Russia was left to the Russians. During the spring of 1919 White Russian armies under Admiral Kolchak and General Denikin achieved. a series of successes; in May Lenin was forced to tell his Revolutionary Military Council, "If we don't conquer the Ural s before winter 1 think the destruction of the Revolution is inevitable. By the end of June less than one- sixth of Russia remained in Bolshevik hands. But that was the zenith of White Russian achievements. In July they lost the Urals to the Bolsheviks, and in October an advance on Moscow was halted 250 miles from the capital. During the following winter the Bolsheviks drove Kolchak’s forces from one stronghold after another. In March 1920 British warships covered the evacuation of troops to the Crimea, the only territory still in White Russian hands. As it became clear that

71