861.00/4324a: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan ( Morris )38
New York Times and other papers published on April 16 statements to the effect that General Graves, Commanding the American forces in Siberia, had reported that the reason he did not go to the assistance of the Japanese detachment which was almost annihilated in an engagement with Russians at Haborvosk [Khabarovsk], Siberia, February 25,39 was because the Japanese had shot down women and children.
On April 17 Acting Secretary of War Crowell issued an official denial of the report with reference to Japanese brutality towards women and children. It developed that the report may have arisen from the fact that some troops representing a Russian faction had been charged with brutality towards women. Reports to this effect have been received here but no such charges have been made against the Japanese. This was made emphatic by War Department and the Department.