861.00/4877: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Irkutsk (Harris), temporarily at Omsk
For Morris.
Apparently about July 14 after much consideration by Supreme War Council at Paris, conclusions were reached as follows:
1. That Czecho-Slovak Government would not consent to Czecho-Slovak armies in Siberia fighting their way out Eastwards unless British Government would guarantee that the Allied expedition operating from Archangel would remain in North Russia until the arrival of the Czechoslovaks.
On this point no reply received from British Government or from Kolchak, Janin or Knox, to all of whom telegrams were apparently sent from Paris.
2. If the Czecho-Slovak forces were to be evacuated via Vladivostok it was considered doubtful whether they could be repatriated at all.
3. Obvious conclusion that there is no likelihood that the Czecho-Slovaks can be repatriated this year. Since that time Kolchak has sent telegrams to the French Foreign Office and also to French High Commissioner in Siberia, after conference with General Janin, which seem to indicate that the alternatives are as follows:
- 1.
- Return of Czecho-Slovaks to the front by volunteering which is expected to produce very small results.
- 2.
- Gradual repatriation to be commenced at once and apparently completed by next Summer.
- 3.
- Disarmament.
The Department appreciates the extreme gravity of this question and will be glad to have any conclusion you reach.