861.00/5334: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
Washington, October 9,
1919, 11 a.m.
3378. For Polk.
Your 4522 October 4, 8 P.M. much garbled and also apparently at variance with understanding of Department.
- 1st:
- Department proposed to repatriate Czechs from Vladivostok or other port in Far East direct to Trieste or other Mediterranean port, via Suez and asked your advice as to what port would be most advantageous. See Department’s 3198, September 22, 4 P.M.
- 2d:
- President has approved and Treasury has authority to advance loans to Czecho-Slovakia for repatriation of Czechs only and we desire to know what arrangements are to be made to finance Poles, Roumanians and Jugo-Slavs. See Department’s 3228 September 24, 5 p.m.
- 3d:
- Transportation across United States complicated by decreased personnel of army and necessity of holding men in camps at ports of debarkation and re-embarkation and is not considered advisable if it can possibly be avoided.
- 4th:
- The American ships now being turned back by War Department are all fitted for troop movement and we are afraid that if we have to wait for a commission to get organized in Paris to [Page 303] allocate tonnage here ships will have been allocated to other routes and expense as well as delay of refitting would be very great and we would be unable to take advantage of General Hines’ knowledge of suitable boats.
- 5th:
- When is Commission to which you refer going to begin to put ships into Vladivostok to take men, that is, how soon will commission get down to work?
- 6th:
- Regardless of whether inter-Allied commission such as you suggest takes final charge, the Department is convinced that without unity of control in the hands of one responsible representative of the Commission there will be confusion, delay and serious dissatisfaction and trouble.
As Department has authority for funds and tonnage to move the Czechs it occurs to me it would be advisable to start their repatriation direct from Siberia to Trieste as a wholly separate movement under the control of General Hines and this might simplify the whole problem and break down the many barriers that seem still to obstruct the actual movement of the men.
Lansing