861.00/4380: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan ( Morris )
Your April 25, 11 p.m. Policy outlined to you was adopted after consultation with Secretary of War and Am[erican] mission in the course of which a plan to establish a definite military zone was considered and abandoned. The Department believes that the establishment of a military zone would lend color to a general suspicion that our joint efforts to restore the railways were actuated by a desire to secure political control over parts of Siberia. In the Department’s opinion our common purpose can best be accomplished by the policy communicated to you. Some of the cities of Siberia are set back from the main line and probably other difficulties of detail would accompany the establishment of a definite military and railway zone. I hope you will make it clear to the Japanese Government the reasons which prompt the Department’s decision and the definite difficulties and complications which it believes the policy it proposes will avoid.