Arctic winter". Upon arriving in Archangel, Sherwood-Kelly wrote that he "received the impression that the policy of the authorities was not what it was stated to be" and that "the troops of the Relief Force which we were told had been sent out for defensive purposes were being used for offensive purposes, on a large scale and far into the interior, in furtherance of some ambitious plan of campaign the nature of which we were not permitted to know". Sherwood-Kelly also wrote that the "much vaulted 'loyal Russian army', was composed largely of Bolshevik prisoners dressed in khaki, it was utterly unreliable, ever disposed to mutiny, and always constituted a greater danger to our troops than the Bolsheviks opposed to them". Finally, Sherwood-Kelly charged that many of the British, Australian, and Canadian soldiers did not understand why they were fighting the Red Army above the Arctic Circle after the armistice had ended the First World War. A War Office spokesman published a rebuttal, only for the Daily Express to publish an interview given by Ironside in June 1919, in which he spoke of plans to advance deep into Russia. The interview had been published in the Gazette of the Archangel Forces newspaper and had been banned by the government, but Sherwood-Kelly leaked a copy to the Daily Express. Urgent consultations within government as to a possible court martial for Kelly followed the publication. "A court martial would be an unusual disciplinary procedure for an officer, rare for one of Kelly's rank, unprecedented for one so well decorated, four times wounded (twice gassed) and nine times mentioned in despatches." Initially the Adjutant General advised against a court martial, suggesting instead that Kelly be removed from the army administratively for misconduct as permitted by an article of the Pay Warrant. However, after the publication by Beaverbrook of a second Kelly letter Churchill favoured Kelly's swift court martial for writing to the newspapers but without reference to anything which had happened or was alleged to have happened in Russia. Kelly was arrested on 13 October 1919; his court martial took place on 28 October 1919 in Westminster Guildhall on the charge of having written three letters to the press on 5 September, 12 September and 6 October 1919 after his return from Russia. Kelly pleaded guilty to contravention of the King's Regulations which provided that an officer was, "forbidden to publish in any