"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية. الحملة في بلاد الرافدين ١٩١٤-١٩١٨. المجلد IV". [ظ‎‎١‎٣‎٥] (٥٤٠/٢٧٥)

218 HISTORY OF THE WAR : MESOPOTAMIA
arrived, or till some other factor arose to improve the situation.
As there were always long gaps in the line of defence, owing
to the failure of the local troops to take up or hold their allotted
positions, it seemed clear that at any moment a determined
Turkish attack might take the town ; and, as it was full of
German and Austrian released prisoners of war and the Tartar
population was mainly pro-Turk, the enemy was certain to
have detailed information of the conditions prevailing.
By this time the whole of the 7th North Staffordshire (20
officers and 539 other ranks under command of Major J. W.
Ley) had reached Baku and parties of the 9th Royal Warwick
shire had begun to arrive. On the 17th August a company
of the North Staffordshire had moved out to the neighbourhood
of Digya to co-operate with a detachment of about 600 local
troops in driving the Turkish parties out of Fatmai and the
neighbouring villages. But during the fighting on the 18th
four-fifths of the local troops retired hastily to Baku, and, as
this left both its flanks uncovered, the North Staffordshire
company had no option but to retire and entrench a position
to the north of Digya. It fortunately only incurred three
casualities.
On the 20th August General Dunsterville sent General
Cobbe a telegram saying that he had just received a despatch
from Bicharakoff. The results of our intervention at Baku
were becoming apparent and it was necessary to regard the
whole situation from a new point of view. Bolshevik influence
had been practically eradicated* and everybody, including
Mahomedans, in the Caspian and Caucasus regions looked
to Great Britain to save Russia and the Caucasus. The
Daghestanis had offered to assist Bicharakoff and the British;
Russian colonists in Lenkoran were awaiting the arrival of a
British Mission to organise their forces for co-operation in the
relief of Baku ; the Georgians were wavering ; and Bicharakoff
promised to return to Baku with 10,000 fresh troops from
Northern Caucasia. General Dunsterville deprecated strongly
any idea of withdrawing from Baku, as this would not only
result in military disaster but would have a very bad political
effect in Persia and Trans-Caspia. All depended on whether
we could hold Baku for the period necessary to enable the
above movements to take shape. The situation was critical
It was reported that Alexeieff, who was pro-British and anti-German, had
occupied Astrakhan ; and the Baku Government was at last disarming Petrofi’s
men and retaking possession of the guns and munitions they had tried to make
oft with.