CHAPTER XXII WE found that the Soviet Commander-in-Chief operating against the Rumanians was living in Odessa station. He was a renegade Colonel, by the name of Mouravioff, and our interviews with him were rendered very distasteful when we recognized in him the man who had thrown General Dukhonin's epaulettes to the crowd and had pushed him on the platform before he was murdered. Mouravioff's troops were not actively engaged. They were pre­ venting supplies going into Rumania, with the idea of starving the country into revolution. When we conveyed to him the resolutions passed / '. by the sailors at Sevastopol, Mouravioff was furious. A meeting of the Supreme Council was called and we were to attend. Dr. Christian Rakovsky was the President of the Council. He was a short dark , man, with intelligent eyes, and seemed to know most of the languages of the world with the exception of English. He was a Rumanian who had been born in Bulgaria and educated at the Sorbonne in Paris, * and he nourished an undying hatred against the j country of his origin. From his student days he had been a revolutionary and was a thorn in the flesh of both Rumania and Bulgaria. He seemed to have a personal grudge against the Royal Family and the military caste of Rumania, and was longing for the time when the Soviets would be established in that country. .67 GO SPY THE LAND GO SPY THE LAND Apart from Mouravioff and Rakovsky, the re­ natural prejudice against yielding any part of Russia, mainder of the Council were a shoddy collection of and behind it all he ,wanted Bessarabia as a base from nonentities, one or two of whom could neither read which the Soviets could pursue their propaganda nor write. It was strange to see Rakovsky at the against Rumania, propaganda which incidentally head of such an assembly, and impossible then to would have added force in a starving country. visualize that one day, as Soviet Ambassador at the Rakovsky's first proposals, we knew, would have no Court of St. James's, he would bring off a diplomatic chance of acceptance by the Rumanian Government, victory against the British Foreign Office. But that and all through that night we were urging, pressing, is just what he did when he engineered the Anglo- haggling, giving him not a moment's peace. After Russian trade agreement, through which fell the hours of negotiation we persuaded him to modify first British Labour Government in 1924. all the clauses but one. It was the clause dealing To Rakovsky we delivered the message that M. with Bessarabia. Rakovsky wished the Rumanians Bratiano had given us for Trotsky. We urged the to evacuate the country immediately, and we on our cessation of hostilities. Rakovsky was adamant, but side urged that they could not be expected to do so we gave him no rest, harrying him day after day and until they had been able to evacuate their stores. pointing out how completely the general situation Again and again we drafted that clause to suit had changed since the Bolsheviks declared war on Rakovsky's wishes as far as possible and yet safeguard Rumania in January. We pressed upon his notice the interests of Rumania. that the Brest Litovsk negotiations had reached a It was not until five o'clock in the morning that he complete deadlock, that the Germans were advancing finally agreed to our wording. The document was on Petrograd and pushing into Ukrainia, and that the drafted in duplicate and the signatures of the Supreme army which he was using against Rumania would be Council attached to it. It was then that I discovered wanted for use against Germany. that two or three of the members could neither read At last Rakovsky agreed to hold a meeting for nor write. Only Rakovsky's signature was now the discussion of the terms on which the Soviets required, and he could not be brought to make up his would be prepared to cease hostilities. To make the mind to sign it. He read and re-read the draft docu­ occasion more impressive Colonel Boyle and I per­ ment, quarrelled with the wording, suggested altera­ suaded the British, French and American Consuls to tions, procrastinated. But Boyle and I would not attend. The conference commenced at ten o'clock in accept any modification. It was now six o'clock. the evening. Boyle and I were already well aware The consuls and the Supreme Council were all tired of the general situation. Rumania, as I have shown, out. Everyone was bored. At lasl^ Rakovsky gave had temporarily to retain Bessarabia to safeguard her way, and signed the document which, when counter­ food supply. Rakovsky on the other hand was signed by the Rumanian Government later, constituted determined that she should not, because he bad a the first Peace Treaty made during the Great War. 168 * 169 GO SPY THE LAND GO SPY THE LAND The credit of getting Rakovsky's signature rests jumped into the seat and started the engine. Some­ entirely with Colonel Boyle. He had been watching body in the house,where the wedding feast was in his man for days and knew all his habits. He knew progress heard the sound and opened fire on him that Rakovsky was a very hard worker, that it was from the window. He returned the fire and killed his practice to work all through the night, to retire two of the wedding party, was badly wounded himself to bed somewhere about five o'clock in the morning, but managed to reach the garage. and to rise again at ten. He made up his mind to Another driver had to be found, and finally the wear Rakovsky out and succeeded in doing so. car pulled up for Boyle still bearing traces of the Rakovsky signed out of sheer physical fatigue. conflict. At once we sent by wireless to the Rumanian It was arranged that I was to remain in Odessa Government the information that Colonel Boyle was and, in the event of the expected German invasion bringing the treaty to Jassy and at the same time we taking place, to carry 451 out of harm's way. Mean­ arranged for a three days' armistice. It was im­ while Boyle and the Major were to take the treaty possible for 451 to go to Jassy since the railway to Jassy and return, if possible, within thirty-six bridge across the Dniester river iiad been blown up hours. But I was fated not to see Boyle again until in the recent hostiUties, and Colonel Mouravioff had J more than a year had passed, when we met at the promised to put a motor-car at Colonel Boyle's Paris Peace Conference. The Rumanian Government disposal on the following morning. were unwilling to sign Rakovsky's conditions and it We waited patiently, but the promised car was not was days before they finally did so. It was the forthcoming. At half-past ten I went off to investigate, Bessarabian clause to which they objected. Time has but all that I could discover was that a car had been shown the justice of Rakovsky's fears of Rumanian ordered from the military garage and had left for the designs on Bessarabia. Many years later I met station. There were very few motor-cars in South Rakovsky again at a Genoa conference, and the first Russia. Perhaps there were not more than a dozen words he said to me were, "I still have the Peace in Odessa, and all of them were in use. At last we Treaty with Rumania in my pocket, but the Rumanians discovered what had happened to the car ordered have still got Bessarabia. You persuaded me against for us. The chauffeur had driven up to the station my will, and so it is your duty to put the matter right." and left the motor in order to report his arrival. Rakovsky's words were uttered in jest, but I have Two of Mouravioff's soldiers, seeing it unoccupied, a feeling that one day that Peace Treaty signed in had stepped into it and driven off to a wedding. The Odessa will play a part in an International Court. chauffeur had rushed off after them and, forgetting Sooner or later Russia will lay a serious claim for the all about reporting to us, had started to search Odessa return of Bessarabia and Rumania will find it hard to for his car. Later in the morning he came across it defend her title. standing outside a house, unoccupied. He promptly At last Boyle telegraphed that the Rumanian 170 '7« GO spy THE LAND GO SPY THE LAND Government had signed and sealed the treaty. He TTien one morning I awoke to find that Mou- added he would be delayed for some days longer over ravioff's siding was empty and his train gone. It some pressing work to which he must attend before meant that the Germans would reach Odessa at any he returned. moment. Mouravioff had slunk away without a word Meantime the German forces had occupied KiefF to me. Furiously angry, I drove into the town to and begun to move on Odessa. The town was doomed, see Rakovsky. He also was prepared for flight but and the higher officers prepared to flee. he had not gone very far. He was on board one of Colonel MouraviofF had an engine with steam up the ships in the harbour. I went down and inter­ attached to his train and was ready to move at a viewed him.