861.00/5543: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
3635. For Polk.
Your 4928, October 31.24
Harris telegraphs from Omsk25 that Bolsheviks are advancing rapidly eastward and that the situation is becoming critical. On the morning of October 28th they were 83 versts from Petropavlovsk [Page 311] on the railway line. The Government has practically decided upon a general evacuation of Omsk. The Siberian Army is fighting well, but Harris believes that unless the Bolshevik advance is checked Omsk will fall in four weeks’ time. He says that Bolshevism will then extend at least to Lake Baikal.
Harris believes that at least 50% of the Czech soldiers are willing to fight the Bolsheviks again and thus secure their return home across European Russia. He believes that the situation will be saved if 25,000 of them would join at once with Kolchak in an anti-Bolshevik offensive.
It seems necessary to face the issue squarely that some such arrangement must be made at once or there will be a great addition to the Bolshevik strength and prestige. I am convinced in these circumstances that we cannot longer wait upon the British and French Governments respecting the movements of the Czechs but should propose to the Government at Prague that the United States will, itself, begin immediately the movement of a portion of the Czechs from Vladivostok by sea upon the clear understanding that not less than 25,000 of them will at once cooperate with Admiral Kolchak in a counter-offensive against the Bolsheviks and with a view to opening a way home. From our point of view this is practical. The President has approved of the extension of credits and the allocation of shipping for the repatriation of the Czechs on the ground chiefly that there will be interior political difficulties in Czechoslovakia otherwise. This aspect of the situation will be met by the repatriation of a portion of the Czechoslovaks. If you concur I am sure that the necessary specific authorization of the President can be obtained so that the first American ships will be at Vladivostok within sixty days ready to load Czech troops.
Please acknowledge this at once stating your views and what action you will take with the Czecho-Slovak representatives as I should like to communicate with Harris without delay.