Colonel Bailey, and his remarkable journey

In Hopkirk's other book "Setting the East Ablaze," he recounts the history of Central Asia from the time of the First World War on. In it are several amazing stories of intrigue, enough, as a quote on the book's jacket says, for about a dozen adventure movies. None, however, are quite as moving as that of a certain Colonel Bailey.

In 1917, the British consul in Kashgar (based in the same building where I stayed while there several weeks ago), was increasingly concerned with the absence of intelligence from Central Asia. The Russian Revolution had swept through the region, cutting off all communication from the outside, and potentially freeing the 40,000 German and Austrian prisoners of war which had been held there by the Tsar. The Brits were worried that these might be turned into an army and marched on India by the Central Powers. Bailey, who was an officer in the Indian Army, was called up to Kashgar and dispatched to report on affairs in Central Asia, and if needed, prepare the ground for a British invasion by their armies currently fighting in Persia.He set off for Tashkent, passing like we did through the Tian Shan mountains into what is today Kyrgyzstan. When he reached Tashkent, he found a city in chaos. Its new Bolshevik masters, formerly Russian railway men and industrial workers, were perpetrating untold terrors on the local population. The local population, which had previously been happy to cast of the Russian Imperial yoke, was starting to find that their new, also Russian, masters were probably worse. Bailey was discovered as a British spy, but rather than be executed summarily like so many other enemies of the Bolsheviks, he was spared, largely because the local Bolshevik leaders were not yet sure of their own success, and were all planning their own escapes to Kashgar if things started going badly.

Soon, as the civil war in Russia started winding down and the Bolsheviks emerged as victors, they were able to focus their attentions on Central Asia. A vast conquering army descended under the leadership of the terrible Frunze, and subdued the region once and for all.

Bailey, realizing that he was about to run out his hosts' hospitality, decided to go underground, adopting the disguise of an Austrian prisoner of war, many of whom were still stranded in the region. He remained in Tashkent, undercover, for the better part of the year, still hoping that the British would invade from Persia. He spent most of this time being sheltered by Russian families loyal to the murdered Tsar, and had a number of harrowing adventures, punctuated with a brief romance with an Irish woman working in Tashkent as a governess for a wealthy family.

After the end of the war, Bailey received news that the British army was being demobilized and withdrawn. Hope was now lost, and there was nothing left to do but escape. But the Bolsheviks had severely restricted movement, and there was no way his disguise would hold up for much longer. Winter had closed the passes back to China, and the only way out led to the east, through Persia. If he could only get to Bukhara, which was then still not yet in Bolshevik control, he might be able to escape over the deserts. No one quite knew what has happening in Bukhara, since the Emir there was murdering all of the spies the Bolsheviks were sending. Bailey, incredibly, hatched the plan of applying to be such a spy for the Bolsheviks, under the guise of being a POW trying to escape to Bukhara. The Bolsheviks agreed, under the condition that while he was in Bukhara, he would look out for information about a certain Indian Army Colonel Bailey, who they thought might be trying to escape through the same route (!!).

Bailey was issued the proper transit papers, and was able to escape to Bukhara, and then from here soon thereafter made it out across the very same deserts to the west that I am about to leave to cross. He made it to the safety of Persia, and from there back to London, to be treated with the hero's welcome he deserved.