File No. 861.00/2769
The Consul General at Irkutsk (Harris) to the Secretary of State2
[Received September 23, 7.02 p.m.]
114. Short résumé present conditions Siberia based on personal observation. No enthusiasm shown among people for recruiting or [Page 387] for continuation war. All statements by the various governments, no matter what nature, received with indifference. If Czechs were removed from any city in Siberia, Urals or Samara districts, Bolsheviks would immediately get control again. Time wasted in petty politics. No large grasp of whole situation or ability, even among intelligent classes, to view “procedure from an all-Russian standpoint. Their horizon bounded by what they can see from their village church steeples. Declarations of All-Russian Assembly just held at Ufa read well from their Allied standpoint and were framed for that purpose but policy for regeneration Russia internally so radically socialistic as concerns land question, private ownership, manufacturing and trade, that is practically the Bolshevik plan [in another] form and would only sink Russia deeper in the mire if practised. No strong men have come forward in any of the governments as yet. German agitations still fermenting strong. Swedish agents responsible for much of it. Unless Allies are prepared to assist Czechs in their present struggle against the Germans in European Russia, the Allies in all fairness to the Czechs should seasonably withdraw them from the whole country so they may not be needlessly sacrificed. Czechs doomed to failure if dependent alone upon help of Siberians and Russians. The presence of at least 50,000 Allied forces in company with Czechs at the front absolutely necessary for prestige and morale generally and to knit together the Russian troops. Presence of American troops in these operations is highly desirable. The Russian turn of mind at present is such that they think Americans lay a little too much stress upon sending of Y.M.C.A. agents, Red Cross representatives, labor advisers, agricultural experts and commissions of merchants. While appreciating all these things they express themselves at this moment as being strongly in favor of seeing a few thousand American soldiers marching through their cities.
- Sent via Legation in China.↩