rule. He was very willing to answer questions
and willing to produce documents. He is
about middle height with rather a military
appearance, and dressed in uniform. There
was nothing swagger about him, and without
his uniform he would have appeared as most
officers appear when in mufti—just an ordinary
person.
When, later on, I met others of the Commission and saw them more or less in a group, I wondered how the sort of legend which has grown up around them was possible ; and then I tried to think of Lord French in Ireland, General Dyer at Amritzar, and our own Sir Basil Thomson here in London. Quite as horrible things can be said of these three from the point of view of violence in putting down civil trouble, and the work of espionage and spying generally.
I first of all tried to discover how the Commission got appointed. It is appointed by the Supreme Council and consists of fifteen members. A presiding board of four sits in Moscow and Committees sit in other towns. A Committee may decide matters if there is full agreement amongst them, but in the event of disagreement the whole Commission of fifteen must be called together to decide the matter under dispute. Its work is manifold. At first its exclusive business was to deal with counter revolutionaries, and without a doubt
