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7°
7° RASPUTIN
[chap. vii.
which I myself concluded, exists, it is waste of time to
speak of any other."
I understood that I had to deal with a pre-conceived
idea firmly fixed in an obstinate brain; so I abandoned
the principal object of my visit and passed to another
subject: the journey which the Chief of the Bulgarian
General Staff, General Fichev, had made to Russia a few
months previously.
" General Fichev," I said, " was very much flattered
by the welcome which he received here, and has carried
away the best impressions of our military organisation.
Up till then he had never been to Russia and did not
know anything about the Russian Army. Colonel
Romanowski, who accompanied the General, told me
that at every moment he uttered exclamations of genuine
surprise at the high standard of instruction of our
troops, their skill in manoeuvres, etc. . . . His foreign
masters (Fichev had been a pupil of the Military College
in Turin) had probably described the Russian Army as
a semi-Asiatic force."
"So that is what M. Fichev told Romanowski, is
it?" interrupted the General, "and I happen to know
that he talked of our Army and of Russia generally in
exceedingly hostile terms!"
" Really ? " I exclaimed. " But then be good enough
to quote your sources of information, General; the
matter ought to be thoroughly sifted, and we ought to
warn our military agent who, since his trip with Fichev,
has become very intimate with him and trusts him."
" But I did not need any sources of information,"
replied Jilinsky, angrily. "Being a rabid
Stambou-lovist, he could not speak otherwise about Russia and
the Russian Army. It is as clear as daylight!"
After this there was nothing left for me to do but to
close our interview and to make my bow to the peppery
General.
Two years and a half after this interview—in
September, 1914—General Jilinsky, who in 1913 had
been made Governor-General of Poland, was also
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