Appendix 5. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Excerpts from Lieut. Stuart Tompkins 
     
     Letters to his Wife 
     
    
   
   
    
     Lieut. Stuart Tonpkins served on the Western Front from Oct 1916 until he was 
     
     returned to Englmd on convalesce leave in April 1917. He returned to Canada in 
     
     March 1918. H: joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force for Siben'a shortly after 
     
     and shipped out to Siberia in Dec. 1918. On his return from Siberia he once again 
     
     entered academi: life receiving a Doctorate in History at the University of Chicago 
     
     in 1932. He ther accepted a position in the Dept. of History at the University of 
     
     Oklahoma. He lecame Research Professor of History, Emeritus, at Oklahoma 
     
     University resigning his position in 1946. He has written a number of books on 
     
     Russia, the people, and the Bolshevist system. The material excerpted below 
     
     provides an excellent overview of Vladivostok during the six months the 260'h 
     
     Battalion was stztioned there. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Across the North Pacific 
     
     260th Rifles Reach Vladivostok 
     
    
   
   
    
     JANUARY-FEBRUARY, I 9 I 9 
     
    
   
   
    
     When the men of the 260th Battalion boarded the Protesilaus, 
     
     they were headed for what was perhaps the roughest crossing made by 
     
     any of the Siberia-bound Canadians. The ship was a British Blue 
     
     Funnel Line freighter that had been converted into a troop carrier. It 
     
     was foul smelling and 'decidedly not a comfortable ship in which to 
     
     cross the north Pacific in mid winter... [it] had closely packed 
     
     hammocks for the troops, only one small galley, and latrines over the 
     
     ship’s sides."' It carried a Chinese crew to whom Stuart applied the 
     
     ethnic label "Chink," and racial indifference, or bias, common at the 
     
     time marks a letter that mentions the loss ofa crew member. 
     
    
   
   
    
     89