File No. 861.00/2248
The Chargé in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 11, 11.35 p.m.]
Consul at Harbin requests immediate repetition of following telegram received to-day:
July 6, 10 p.m. Repeat Department immediately and to Admiral Knight. Horvat has just asserted and requested me to inform you that upon the demand of Far Eastern Committee for salvation of Russia, he has organized a non-partisan government for Siberia. Cabinet consists of Horvat, president and commander in chief, constitutional monarchist by choice, a position which he announced at the beginning of the revolution and from which he has never receded, but willing to work as conservative democrat; Vostrotin, member of Third and Fourth Russian Dumas from central Siberia, assistant minister of supplies under Provisional Government, Cadet Party; Taskin, member second and fourth Siberian Constituent Assembly, Cadet; Ustrugov, assistant minister railways Provisional Government, Independent Democrat; Pflug, former governor Vladivostok now representing Kornilov and also Russian central eastern military organization, Independent Democrat; Okorokov, provisional commissioner of the Altai state and representative of the spectator [Siberian] Cooperative Societies, Socialist; Kurski, [omission] workman, member of spectator [Siberian] Cooperative Societies, Socialist.
On being informed that to-day Nikolsk had been taken by combined Czecho-Slovaks [and Kalmykov’s?] Cossacks, Horvat said his organization would go to Siberia to-morrow and announce publicly that they would take over the government at that point, thus renouncing any attempt to govern Siberia from interior [exterior?]. He hoped for the support of Czecho-Slovaks and Siberian people and Allied Governments but if these failed his organization was prepared to accept the consequences. He will not [?] guarantee Constituent Assembly, full suffrage [omission]. [Omission] are without money, arms or soldiers except Semenov’s force and Orlov’s and Kalmykov’s forces now augmented by 1,500 Cossack volunteers. The democratic party called Siberian self-government too exclusively socialistic and scattered to be representative or powerful. Will make public announcement as soon as they arrive Nikolsk. Japanese Consul informs me [his] government will undoubtedly support Horvat organization until it can call always with [together] Constituent Assembly, as Japan believes Horvat organization only one capable of resisting.