File No. 861.00/1898
The Ambassador in France (Sharp) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 30, 11.55 a.m.]
4033. I learn that Signor Orlando and Mr. Lloyd George are coming to Paris for a conference to be held on Saturday about the attitude which the Allies are to adopt towards Russia. Among the subjects discussed will of course be that of Japanese intervention in Siberia. The Japanese Government has telegraphed asking the French Government if its active cooperation can be counted upon at once to back up Semenov in Siberia while waiting for the military action which Japan is now preparing in view of an understanding with the Allies. I am told that France has not felt able to complete arrangement, as anything she might say now would appear to commit her. As a matter of fact, her only effective forces in Siberia at the present moment are some four hundred or five hundred marines.
It is reported in military circles that a French mission is very shortly to be sent to Washington to discuss Japanese intervention. Mr. Henri Bergson told me to-day that he would leave for America in a few days. He regards the situation in Russia as of such gravity as to demand the intervention of the Allied powers.