288 FROM KASHGAR TO ALICHUR PAMIR CH. XIX
colleague and accorded me a very kindly reception. But he declared he had received no instructions whatever about the permission required for my entry into Russian territory. On a reference promptly made by him to Tashkend, the Governor General's office declared itself equally ignorant of the grant of the permission in question. The suspense was naturally a cause of serious anxiety for me. But at last a telegraphic enquiry addressed by myself direct to the British Ambassador at Petrograd had brought Sir George Buchanan's assurance that the desired permission had been duly granted by the Imperial Ministry long before. Thereupon Prince Mestchersky very kindly agreed to accept this message to myself as a sufficient authority for issuing the requisite special permit.
I had additional reason to feel very grateful for the consideration thus shown when, on my representing the scientific interests which drew me to that region, that cultured diplomat readily agreed to make the permit apply to the whole of the Pamirs and the adjoining parts of Russian Turkistan. It was no doubt mainly a result of his kind recommendations to the Russian authorities across the border and in the protected State of Bukhara that I enjoyed their most effective help all through my travels of the following three months. When I think of the suspicion with which British visitors to Russian Turkistan used to be treated in former years, and the still more adverse conditions prevailing since in those parts, I must indeed give thanks for the kindly Fate which facilitated my long-hoped-for visit just during the favourable interval created by the War.
By July 6 I was able to leave Kashgar for the mountains westwards after having completed all arrangements for the
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