File No. 861.00/2799c
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Page)2
You will please say to the Government to which you are accredited that the Government of the United States has been considering the disposition for the winter of the American expeditionary forces in Siberia and in Russia. The Government of the United States has decided that its forces in Siberia should not be established at Omsk or any other point in the far interior, because [here follows the remainder of the first three paragraphs of the telegram of September 26, 6 p.m., to the Ambassador in Japan, ante, page 392.]
The Government of the United States has very carefully considered the situation which exists in north Russia and has informed the American Ambassador at Archangel that as it is, in the opinion of the Government of the United States, plain that no gathering of any effective force by the Russians is to be hoped for, we shall [Page 395] insist with the other governments, so far as our cooperation is concerned, that all military effort in northern Russia be given up except the guarding of the ports themselves and as much of the country round about them as may develop threatening conditions. We will, of course, do our utmost to send supplies, but cannot undertake general relief, and must presently, of course, be cut off from Archangel by the ice and able to go only to Murmansk.
No more American troops will be sent to the northern ports.
The course which the Government of the United States is following is not the course of our free choice but that of stern necessity. Circumstances in European Russia, which have thrown that country into one of the saddest periods recorded in all history, and our separation from the scenes of bloodshed and anarchy by the intervening hostile territory render any efforts which this Government could make to bring succor to the distressed people of Russia inadequate and impracticable. We are constrained, consequently, to come to this decision.
- The same, on the same date, to the Ambassadors in France and Italy, and to the Chargé in Japan, for repetition to the Minister in China. On Sept. 27 a memorandum was communicated to the British Chargé, to the French, Italian, Japanese, and Russian Ambassadors, and to Professor Masaryk, in practically the same words, the introduction reading: “After consideration of the matter of the disposition for the winter of the American expeditionary forces in Siberia and in Russia, the Government of the United States has decided [etc.]” (File No. 861.00/2887a).↩