861.00/5314: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Irkutsk (Harris), temporarily at Omsk72
Washington, October 3,
1919, 4 p.m.
Your 403, September 30, noon, together with your previous telegram giving Soukine’s reply to General Graves have led Department to believe authorities at Omsk may possibly have no information of circumstances which led, first, to the temporary detention of the rifles by General Graves and, second, to the demand of the Allied commanders for the withdrawal of Rozanoff’s forces from Vladivostok.
- First: Continued friction with Kalmikoff’s forces culminated September 5th in the arrest of an American Captain and Corporal in the neighborhood of Habarovsk on the ground that they had no Russian passports. Upon protest by the American Commanding Officer, the Captain was released but the Corporal was detained and subsequently flogged. Kalmikoff ordered the release of the Corporal on September 7th only after the American commander had arrested three Cossacks in reprisal. The flogging of an American Corporal was very properly regarded by General Graves as an outrage. This Government has been confident that when aware of the facts the Omsk Government would not only disclaim responsibility for the action [Page 526] taken by Kalmikoff and repudiate it, but would also apologize officially that such an incident should have occurred with any Russian commander supporting Kolchak. Based on this confidence in the attitude of the Omsk Government, General Graves arranged to release the rifles as soon as he could safeguard their delivery to the forces of Admiral Kolchak west of Irkutsk. This Government is perfectly confident that the failure of the Omsk Government to take the action which was expected has been due wholly and entirely to lack of information.
- Second: The Government of the United States is most sympathetically concerned in upholding the rights and dignity of Russia and is fully aware of the circumstances which, in principle, led the Omsk Government to desire the presence of some of its forces in Vladivostok. The actual result in practice has been very different to what were doubtless the expectations of the authorities at Omsk. General Rozanoff has manifested an openly hostile attitude towards the Allies and the presence of his forces to date has resulted in the murder of a Russian Colonel by Cossacks, in the killing of one American and one Czech soldier by Russian officers, and in the creation of such strained relations between the Allies and the forces of General Rozanoff that reliable observers fear the outbreak of open hostilities between them in the near future, as a matter which will be difficult to avoid. It has been solely as a result of this situation that the Allied Commanders demanded the withdrawal of General Rozanoff’s forces. It is obvious that his presence with troops in Vladivostok has militated against that respect for law and order which it is the announced purpose of the Omsk Government to establish and in which purpose this Government desires to assist.
Lansing
- Repeated to the Consul at Vladivostok.↩