861.77/1017: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Morris), temporarily at Omsk, to the Secretary of State
[Received August 15, 9:10 a.m.]
Your July 31, 5 p.m. It has not been possible to put in force conclusions in regard to railway operation reported in my July 27, 4 p.m. I surmise that the Japanese Government has decided not to interfere with Semionoff in his attacks on the railway administration. They evidently intend to assume an entirely correct attitude toward the Kolchak government as long as it exists and at the same time strengthen their influence with Semionoff by giving him a free hand now so that they may continue their control over him should he finally become dictator of eastern Siberia. At all events the Japanese representatives here attend all the conferences and agree to all the conclusions, and assure me of their devotion to the Kolchak cause. Meanwhile General Oba at Chita advises Major Gravis21 that his troops are not authorized to prevent Semionoff’s interference. As a result Semionoff has arrested Gravis’ interpreter on a trumped-up charge of being a Bolshevik, has renewed [Page 570] the whipping of railway employees and is apparently determined to drive the American engineers out of his territory.
- Russian Railway Service Corps.↩