File No. 861.00/2147
The Diplomatic Liaison Officer, Supreme War Council (Frazier), to the Secretary of State
[Received 5.55 p.m.]
96. Department’s 4758, 25th.1 Statement referred to by British Embassy appeared in L’Humanité and several other French newspapers on the 21st instant. It should have appeared in L’Homme Libre, Mr. Clemenceau’s newspaper, but the article was censored; the other newspapers which published it attributed the information to L’Homme Libre. The statement reads as follows:
M. Pichon, Minister for Foreign Affairs, made an important declaration yesterday in the lobbies of the Chamber. Colonel House, who it is well known is a personal friend of the President of the United States, informed M. Pichon that Mr. Wilson would give his full adhesion to the principle of Japanese intervention in Siberia.
It not infrequently happens in Paris that an article censored in the newspaper in which it should have appeared slips by and is published in other newspapers. I have unofficially ascertained that the foundation for this statement was a conversation between M. Bergson and Colonel House which was telegraphed by the former to M. Pichon who was under the impression that this coincided with Colonel House’s views. I have made the communication to the Ambassador as directed by the Department.
In well-informed circles here it was yesterday asserted and believed that Japan had agreed upon intervention in Siberia under conditions suggested at the last meeting of the Supreme War Council at Versailles.