File No. 861.00/2327

The Assistant Secretary of State (Phillips) to the Secretary

To the Secretary: Mr. Sookine1 has just returned from Paris where he met and talked with all the high French officials in regard to the Russian situation. He reports that the French have already changed their views regarding intervention; that they are no longer seeking to form a “front” against the Germans in European Russia, and realize the necessity of first bringing Russia into being before an offensive against the Germans in the East can be thought of. Sookine’s machine for carrying out his idea, which he tells me now coincides with the French official idea, is somewhat as follows:

1.
A high commissioner—a Joffre—who will be more a symbol than a military leader. (It is interesting to note that Mr. Pichon and various other Frenchmen were of the opinion that Joffre was the man to head such a commission.)
2.
Under the commissioner would be:
(1)
A political department—propaganda, etc.;
(2)
An economic department (largely American);
(3)
A military force, to be divided into:
(a)
Japanese and Czecho-Slovaks to be used as shock troops;
(b)
American, British, and French troops to be used as garrison troops; i. e., they could mingle among the natives and thus produce friendly relations.

[Page 233]

Sookine’s idea is that Japanese will ultimately be the larger military force and that therefore they must be commanded by a Japanese general who, however, would be subordinate to the civilian commissioner. On paper the machine will look somewhat as follows [diagram omitted].

Mr. Sookine believes that as soon as the Allied commission begins to operate there will arise from the ruins of Russia a Russian commission; that this commission should work harmoniously and in collaboration with the Allies, and should eventually be the nucleus for a Russian provisional government. Mr. Sookine himself prefers an American to head the Allied commission.

Sincerely,

W. Phillips
  1. Formerly secretary attached to the Russian Embassy at Washington.