861.00/5380: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 13, 2:15 p.m.]
On October 1st my Russian colleague, acting under instructions from the Omsk Government, made another application to the Japanese Government for Japanese troops to guard the railway from Irkutsk to Omsk; on October 6th he supplemented the request by an earnest plea that at least some of the reinforcements recently sent to Siberia by Japan be detailed for this work, stating that such aid would be required for a period not exceeding six months. Yesterday he received an answer from the Japanese Government that the entire situation had been carefully reconsidered with a full appreciation of the reasons which had impelled the request; but that with sincere regret they had to advise him that no change could be made in their previous decision not to send any troops beyond Irkutsk. My Russian colleague also received a telegram from Omsk dated October 8th, stating that the evacuation of the Czechs from the Irkutsk-Omsk district would begin in ten days.
Referring to your October 9, 5 p.m.76 I do not believe that the Japanese military are at present supporting the ambitious plans of Semenoff nor that they will support any plan for the independence of eastern Siberia as long as the Omsk Government continues. Should the withdrawal of the Czechs precipitate a crisis at Omsk, which is expected, the one thing I have chiefly feared, then the Japanese Government would undoubtedly sympathize with and perhaps even openly support Semenoff in his efforts to establish a dictatorship in eastern Siberia, on the theory that only thus could they prevent the spread of Bolshevism into Manchuria, Korea, and possibly Japan itself.
[Page 532]In addition, there is real peril to all adjoining countries in the plague which Doctor Teusler reports is spreading rapidly throughout Siberia. He telegraphs me that typhus alone is increasing at the rate of 1,000 fresh cases daily and will reach enormous proportions by midwinter. In view of these conditions and in the absence of any adequate plan for Allied assistance (the difficulties of which I fully realize), I do not think that we can justly complain if Japan marks out a zone of safety, takes matters into her own hands, and adopts methods, however deplorable, ruthlessly to suppress disorder and to protect her national interests.
- Not printed.↩