File No. 861.77/546

The Ambassador in Japan ( Morris ) to the Secretary of State

[Telegram]

Supplementing my November 7, 4 p.m.1 My British colleague advises me that he received yesterday instructions from his Government which stated not to continue its policy of giving support to independent Cossack leaders in Siberia. He further stated that following our conversation as reported in my November 8, 4 p.m., he saw the Minister for Foreign Affairs, explained the difficulties which the Canadian troops had encountered in obtaining transportation and advocated the immediate approval of our railway plan as the [Page 283] only practicable method of remedying conditions. The Minister for Foreign Affairs repeated the objections raised by the General Staff and said that he had suggested to me three possible alternatives: (1) an Allied committee simply to advise the present Russian management; (2) joint management by Stevens and Kinoshita;1 (3) sole Japanese operation of the Chinese Eastern. As both Mr. Stevens and I appeared unsympathetic to these suggestions he had transferred the negotiations to Washington. In commenting to me on this interview my British colleague expressed regret that the proposals had such a purely American flavor as he feared this had excited unduly Japanese suspicion. He proposed to suggest to his Government the advisability of a joint Allied representation to the Japanese Government in support of our plan which already had the approval of all the Allied representatives at Vladivostok.

Morris .
  1. Vol. ii, p. 428.
  2. Director of the Traffic Bureau of the Japanese Imperial Government Railways.