861.77/945: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Morris), temporarily at Irkutsk, to the Acting Secretary of State14
[Received July 18, 2 p.m.]
I submit the following observations of the conditions under which the Chinese Eastern and Trans-Siberian Railways are being operated as far as Irkutsk.
The Allied inspectors in charge of operations are struggling with serious difficulties. On the division between Vladivostok and Pogranichnaya, Stevens and the Allied Technical Board are hampered by the interference of the Cossack military authorities who profess to represent Kolchak in eastern Siberia and refuse to recognize the authority of the Technical Board. I am convinced that the Cossacks get sympathy and support from the Japanese military authorities. While Stevens and his men have won the confidence of the employees and of the railway management the continued military interference and the falling value of the ruble have created discontent and restlessness among the men and have resulted in the recent strikes. There is little, if any, Bolshevism among the railway [Page 566] employees, but there is a deep-seated antagonism to the rule of the Cossacks and suspicion of the Kolchak government which is apparently too weak to challenge the Cossack authority.
On that part of the Chinese Eastern Railway which passes through northern Manchuria, including Harbin and Manchuria Station, there is no Cossack problem, and the situation is somewhat better. The Japanese military authorities no longer interfere as they did when they took possession a year ago. To this extent they are loyal to the railway agreement. But they still maintain troops at all the stations in Manchuria, they are holding all the barracks previously occupied, they have completed the erection of their private telephone and telegraph wires, and are maintaining their own force of despatchers, inspectors, and terminal experts, who, while not attempting for the present to interfere in operation, are quite obviously preparing for the future.
From Manchuria Station to Verkhnieudinsk the railway is dominated by Semenoff with the open support of the Japanese military authorities. His relations with the Kolchak government merely nominal. His strength is wholly Japanese. He has constantly interfered with the Allied inspectors who have again and again sought and have been refused the support of the Japanese military command supposedly guarding the railway in this section. I arrived at Chita just after Semenoff’s bandits in one of their armored cars had seized the office car and equipment of Major Gravis, an American engineer, and the Allied divisional inspector.15 I am using this incident to bring the general question to definite issue. At Chita I saw General Oba, the Japanese divisional commander, and discussed the entire situation for several hours. Later under Japanese pressure Semenoff promised to return the car, but has not yet done so. During our interview, General Oba frankly expressed to me his profound admiration for. Semenoff, his confidence in Semenoff’s purposes and motives and the close association which existed between them.
Between Verkhnieudinsk and Mysovaya the presence of 2,000 American troops and the determined stand taken by Colonel Morrow under General Graves’s instructions have destroyed Semenoff’s influence in that sector,16 while from Mysovaya to the Irkutsk, including the important Baikal tunnel district, the Czechs are still in control.
On this situation I offer the following comment:
From Vladivostok to Irkutsk, excepting only two sectors guarded by American troops, the military control of the railways is in the hands of the Japanese who are using the Cossack organization subsidized [Page 567] and supported by them to discredit Allied operation. Kolchak is powerless to withstand this influence which has gone so far as to force the appointment of the bandit Kalmikoff as the representative of Dutoff [Rozanov?], the Kolchak commander of all military operations in the east.
To my mind the Japanese plan is perfectly clear. Baffled by the railway agreement in their organized attempt to take possession of the Chinese Eastern and Trans-Siberian Railways as far as Chita and thus dominate eastern Siberia and northern Manchuria the Japanese Government is countenancing a less obvious, but a more insidious scheme of operating through the Cossack organization which is the only substantial support Kolchak has east of Chita. It will not be difficult for Japan to dispose of the eastern Cossacks when they have served the purpose.
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