861.00/6378
The Secretary of State to the British Appointed Ambassador on Special Mission (Grey)
My Dear Mr. Ambassador: I have received your note of the 13th concerning the situation in Siberia.
The Russian Embassy at Washington informs me that the loan with private bankers, to which you refer, has been consummated.
The delay in the delivery of the 14,000 rifles which you mention was due chiefly to the difficulty of assuring their safe transit through the territory east of Lake Baikal which, as you are aware, is the theatre of operations by Cossack leaders yielding hardly more than a nominal obedience to the Government at Omsk. The rifles are now in the course of delivery or may have already been delivered.
I have been pleased to observe from the most recent reports that the situation in eastern Siberia is greatly improved. The energetic measures which were taken seem to have removed for the present the causes of our earlier anxiety.
I am [etc.]