861.00/5945: Telegram
The American member of the Inter-Allied Railway Committee (Smith) to the Secretary of State, transmitted by the Consul at Vladivostok (Macgowan)
[Received December 21, 12:25 a.m.]
647. [From Smith:]
“Semenoff, who I personally know, has recently been sending telegrams to be given General Graves and myself. He states that he is ashamed of his past actions toward Americans for which he was only in part responsible. He says that he has always been opposed to the Omsk Government because it was reactionary and that he only recognized it because the Japanese forced him to do so. Two days ago he sent a telegram outlining a representative form of government proposed by him to Kolchak. It is to be composed of representatives to be elected in proportion to numbers of each from the Cossacks, Zemstvos, Buriats, city population, cooperatives and labor unions. He says that he has presented this to Kolchak who consents. He has asked General Graves and myself to give him our ideas. We simply told him that any government to be successful here must have the consent of the people and that all classes should have representation. To this he [omission], and believed that with such a representation the large masses of the people will consent. He proposes that a general proclamation be issued giving the people a certain time to give consent. He says that the civil authorities must direct affairs hereafter and the military will only be for the protection of the civil. He says that there will be a few bands of criminals who will not consent but that will be all.
The Chinese Commissioner tells me that the Japanese military tried to compel Semenoff to form a government of Mongolia, Manchuria and Eastern Siberia but that he refused. This naturally makes the Chinese look upon him differently than formerly.
The Czechs state that recently Kolchak ordered the arrest of the Pepelaieff Ministry but Semenoff refused to allow this to be done. The only apparent difference between Semenoff and Pepelaieff is that the latter wants only representatives from the Zemstvos and municipalities called while the former wants all existing bodies to have representation.
[Page 551]In his last telegram Semenoff stated that there is no front army at present, that the Bolsheviki have no opposition, that locomotives are frozen and trains cannot move west of Krasnoyarsk. Czechs partly confirm the report. Repeated to Tokyo. Smith.”