ABSTRACT
Benckendorff a new ambassador triumphed over the military and Major General Yermolov was posted back to Britain where he remained until 1917 as the military agent and later as a refugee. Lamsdorff forced on Benckendorff Pavel Lessar's friend, the intelligent and energetic Petr S. Botkin, as the first secretary because, after Lessar's transfer to China, not one of the ambassador's hand-picked staff knew how to write a serious political or economic report. At the end of 1902 a list of the embassy staff and domestics who enjoyed diplomatic privileges was sent to the Foreign Office. Benckendorff also curbed the initiatives of other partisans of Anglo-Russian rapprochement and put an end to what he called the excessive decentralization of our representation which complicated his task. From Copenhagen, Sir Edward Goschen congratulated Benckendorff on his success in London. Benckendorff hoped to accomplish a turnaround in Anglo-Russian relations by influencing public opinion through his personal relations with influential Britons and through the press.
