Office of the Historian

033.1140/212: Telegram

The Chargé in Japan (MacMurray) to the Acting Secretary of State

Tokyo, January 23, 1919, 5 p.m.
[Received January 24, 4:11 p.m.]

For Colonel House from Bullard.48

“Still in hospital but hope to sail soon to join you. Very sorry for delay.

I hope no formal recognition will be extended to Kolchack. His personality is of small significance. He is surrounded and dependent on the support of reactionary elements whose principal idea of government is the reconquest of former grafts. His army is being organized on old lines of Tsarist discipline. Several units have already revolted against brutality of officers. The vengeance of his [omission] against Bolsheviks we have helped to disable is as red as the Bolshevik terror in Moscow. After allowing the Siberian Government and the Directorate which were both sincere attempts at liberation to collapse from lack of recognition, the Allied support of Kolchack’s experiment in reaction is a feature regrettable.

Please communicate to Creel.”49

MacMurray
  1. Arthur Bullard, director of Russian division, Committee on Public Information.↩
  2. George Creel, chairman, Committee on Public Information.↩