and Indian armies looked upon us from Australia and New Zealand as they looked upon Indians, and were prepared to do anything to avoid being publicly commanded by us." The British government's principal interest in Japan was to renew pre-war trade concessions, and to secure new ones; it was particularly interested in the port city of Kobe. The Americans blocked these attempts. Robertson clashed repeatedly with Lieutenant General Sir Charles Gairdner, the official representative of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Gairdner was nominally senior in rank to Robertson until March 1947, when Robertson was promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant general, backdated to January 1944. Robertson resisted Gairdner's requests for BCOF aircraft for personal purposes. Korean War By mid-1950, the BCOF was winding down. All the contingents other than the Australians had departed, and the Australians were preparing to leave. For his services as commander of the BCOF, Robertson was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division) (KBE) in the King's Birthday Honours List. Robertson intended to travel to London to be invested by King George VI but his plans were disrupted by the outbreak of the Korean War on 25 June 1950. Robertson passed on to the Australian government requests from MacArthur for BCOF assistance, which were agreed to. He committed the frigate and No. 77 Squadron RAAF but, although authorised to do so, he hesitated to deploy the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, as he considered the risks too great. Robertson built up what became the British Commonwealth Forces Korea (BCFK). While the British government had hoped to have the Americans supply all their logistic support, Robertson realised that this was impossible. The US Army was being stretched to its limit just supporting itself and the army of the Republic of Korea, and British Commonwealth equipment was different in many respects. The British Army then scrambled to meet its own logistic needs, creating ad hoc arrangements and requesting support from Robertson and MacArthur. The Chief of the General Staff, Sydney Rowell, sent a cable to his British counterpart, Field Marshal Sir William Slim, warning of "a bugger's muddle in which the only people to suffer will be the soldiers". Slim agreed; a Maintenance Area was established in Korea to support Commonwealth forces there, which drew some resources from American sources, such as petrol, oil and lubricants, engineer stores, casualty