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1914] COL. KANDAUROFF’S TIDINGS
St. Petersburg; I had been informed of his appointment
a few days previously. The first question I asked him
was how matters stood when he left St. Petersburg.
"All that I can tell you is this," answered the
Colonel: "as you know, I was discharging the duties of
assistant to the Quarter-Master-General at Headquarters;
as there was an enormous amount of work, I only left
my office two hours before the train left for Abo, that
is to say yesterday, Thursday, at six o’clock in the
morning. Now, all through the night I was busy
dispatching peremptory orders to commanding officers in
Poland and on the Prussian frontier carefully to avoid,
in case of mobilisation, anything that might seem to the
German authorities to be a threat of military action
against Germany. All the frontier posts were to be
moved back to ten or fifteen kilometres, no marching
column was to be formed, even the frontier guards were
to be removed so that there could be no collision in the
event of German troops approaching our frontier and
even crossing it. . . . These orders came from His
Majesty himself; they reached General Headquarters
very late on Wednesday evening, and yesterday,
Thursday, at six o’clock in the morning all the necessary
telegrams had been sent off. You can see by that,
Monsieur, that in our country all hope of coming to
some arrangement with Berlin is not lost."
This news restored some hope to me; but not for
long; the following morning the news of the German
ultimatum to Russia appeared, and then I realised that
all hope had vanished.
From Friday evening a real panic reigned in
Stockholm : all the banks were closed by order of the
Government, and outside their doors were enormous
queues of people who wished to take out their deposits
and their money. Prince Eitel Frederick’s squadron of
destroyers had left two days before for an unknown
destination. I was told that my German colleague had
said at a meeting that he was sure Sweden would side
with Germany.
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