861.00/4873 b: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Consul at Vladivostok (Caldwell)93
The following is the address the President made to the detachment of 1,050 Czecho-Slovak troops which he reviewed to-day in Washington. Troops have been invalided out of Vladivostok and are en route to their native land. You will please release for publication and forward to Omsk with instructions to release.
“It gives me great pleasure to have this opportunity to review this detachment of your valiant army and to extend to you, its officers, and the brave men associated with you a most cordial welcome. Though we have been far away, we have watched your actions and have been moved by admiration of the services you have rendered under the most adverse circumstances. Having been subjected to an alien control, you were fired by a love of your former independence and for the institutions of your native land, and gallantly aligned yourselves with those who fought in opposition to all despotism and military autocracy. At the moment when adversity came to the armies with which you were fighting, and when darkness and discouragement cast a shadow upon your cause, you declined to be daunted by circumstances and retained your gallant hope. Your steadfastness in purpose, your unshaken belief in high ideals, your [Page 287] valor of mind, of body, and of heart have evoked the admiration of the world. In the midst of a disorganized people and subject to influences which worked for ruin, you consistently maintained order within your ranks, and by your example helped those with whom you came in contact to reestablish their lives. I cannot say too much in praise of the demeanor of your brave army in these trying circumstances. Future generations will happily record the influence for good which you were privileged to exercise upon a large part of the population of the world, and will accord you the place which you have so courageously won. There is perhaps nowhere recorded a more brilliant record than the withdrawal of your forces in opposition to the armies of Germany and Austria, through a population at first hostile, or the march of your armies for thousands of miles across the great stretches of Siberia, all the while keeping in mind the necessity for order and organization.
You are returning now to your native land which is today, we all rejoice to say, again a free and independent country. May you contribute to her life that stamina which you so conspicuously manifested through all your trying experiences in Russia and Siberia, and may you keep in mind after your return, as you have kept in mind hitherto, that the laws of God, the laws of man and the laws of nature require systematic order and cool counsel for their proper application and development, and for the welfare and happiness of the human race.”
Furnish copy to Czecho-Slovak representative and ask Harris to do likewise.
- The same in substance to the Minister in Czechoslovakia.↩