'Perhaps you are unaware, General, that I have been appointed by His Imperial Majesty the Tsar to command this fortress. You, as commanding the land defences, are immediately subordinate to me, and without my permission you have not a shadow of right to abandon anything in my fortress. I am its Commandant, and I alone am responsible.' 'I hunted for you last night, sir; I went to your hut to look for you, but couldn't find you anywhere.' This was incorrect; he had not done so. 'You must have known it was useless to look for me there--I do not follow the example set by some amongst you, and change my quarters every time a chance shell comes near them.[38] Every one knows that I live here, and I only leave this to go out on to the defences. I repeat,' continued Smirnoff, 'you have not the slightest right to give up a fort without my approval. I can reinforce it as much as seems advisable to me. There are more than 30,000 men at this minute bearing arms in the Fortress. Under no circumstances should the fort have been abandoned; it might very easily have been held. Moreover, its surrender has had the worst effect on the whole garrison. You have undermined the principles I have always instilled into the men--that a fort may perish, but never surrender; you have done untold harm. I cannot tell now but what the men will take it into their heads to retire from forts of their own accord. The garrison is worn out and underfed, and to men in this condition an example of this sort is paralysing, and may fatally injure the further defence.[39] Men are but human; they wish to live, and the instinct of self-preservation is always strong in them.' From Smirnoff Fock went off at once to Stössel. On the 18th a secret meeting of the District Staff was held. The result was the publication in a District Order of an entirely inaccurate version of the circumstances relating to the loss of the fort. After the sudden abandonment of this strong fort, which was made without permission of, or even reference to, the Council of Defence, the Commandant despatched the following cypher telegram to Kuropatkin, No. 1,282, dated December 20, 1904: '_To the Commander-in-Chief of the Armies and the Fleet._