861.00/7211a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul at Vladivostok (Caldwell)
Tokyo press reports that in 1914 the Governor of the Maritime Province, with Imperial consent, issued a decree attaching Nikolaievsk to the district of Sakhalin. No report of this action can be found in the Department and the Department has been consistently under the impression that the four administrative districts of the Maritime Province, Sakhalin, Amur, Transbaikal were under the Governor General of the Amur, Sakhalin military governorship comprising only the Island itself and not including Nikolaievsk. Obtain text of decree at once and telegraph detailed summary, reporting, if possible, any reasons for the change given or made public at the time. Report also what the relations between Sakhalin and Nikolaievsk were under Kolchak and in the interim between 1914 and Kolchak’s assumption of power. Immediate answer desired.