Treachery in the town--Jungalis attack Resht--Armoured cars in street-fighting--Baku tires of Bolshevism--British summoned to the rescue--Dunsterville sets out--Position at Baku on arrival--British officers' advice ignored--Turkish attacks--Pressing through the defences--Baku again evacuated CHAPTER XXI THE TURKS AND THE CHRISTIAN TRIBES Guerrilla warfare--Who the Nestorian and other Christian tribes are--Turkish massacres--Russian withdrawal and its effect--British intervention CHAPTER XXII IN KURDISTAN The last phase--Dunsterforce ceases to exist--The end of Turkish opposition--Off to Bijar--The Kurdish tribes--Raids on Bijar--Moved on by a policeman--Governor and poet CHAPTER XXIII THE END OF HOSTILITIES Types of Empire defenders--Local feeling--Dealing with Kurdish raiders--An embarrassing offer of marriage--Prestige by aeroplane--Anniversary of Hossain the Martyr--News of the Armistice--Local waverers come down on our side of the fence--Releasing civil prisoners--Farewell of Bajar--Down country to the sea and home APPENDIX THE WORK OF THE DUNSTERFORCE ARMOURED CAR BRIGADE INDEX {xv} LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS THE ROAD TO BIRKANDI ... _frontispiece_ BRITISH-TRAINED PERSIAN POLICE HÔTEL D'EUROPE AT RESHT STONE BRIDGE AT SIAH RUD TYPICAL PERSIAN VILLAGE PERSIAN TRANSPORT DARIUS INSCRIPTIONS AT BISITUN CARAVANSERAI, BISITUN DRILLING JEHUS AT HAMADAN ROAD NEAR RUDBAR NORTH GATE OF KASVIN DRILLING ARMENIANS AT BAKU GROUP OF STAFFORDS AT BALADADAR STATION SIX-INCH HOWITZER IN ACTION AT BAKU GENERAL VIEW OF SCENE FOLLOWING THE ARMENIAN RETIREMENT HARVESTING IN PERSIA _Map ... facing page_ 1 [Illustration: Map] {1} WITH THE PERSIAN EXPEDITION CHAPTER I THE START OF THE "HUSH-HUSH" BRIGADE A mystery expedition--Tower of London conference--From Flanders mud to Eastern dust--An Imperial forlorn hope--Some fine fighting types--The amphibious purser--In the submarine zone--Our Japanese escort. Scarcely had dawn tinged the sky of a February day in 1918 when there crept out of the inner harbour of Taranto a big transport bound for Alexandria. It was laden with British and Dominion troops. All were for service overseas. There were units for India and Egypt, a contingent of Nursing Sisters for East Africa, and a detachment of Sappers for Aden. The transport stealing noiselessly towards the open sea was the P. and O. liner _Malwa_, and, as a precaution against submarine attack, she had been so extensively and grotesquely camouflaged by dockyard artists in black and white that some of her own crew coming alongside on a dark night had difficulty in recognizing her.