Office of the Historian

861.51/646: Telegram

The Ambassador in Japan (Morris), temporarily at Omsk, to the Secretary of State

Omsk, August 4, 1919, 11 a.m.
[Received August 6, 10:04 a.m.]

Unless the Department should request it I will not at this time telegraph the very long statement concerning the chaotic monetary and financial conditions in Siberia which has been prepared by the Ministry of Finance and reported to our conference on July 30. I will merely state the conclusions on which the conference was able to agree and certain practical steps suggested. Following are the conclusions:

1st.
If the Kolchak government is to receive Allied support there must be a complete severance of such other currency of the liberated regions of Russia from the Bolshevik monetary system.
2d.
The Kolchak government should, as one of the conditions of any recognition or assistance from the Allied governments, issue some form of interest-bearing scrip to cover unpaid coupons on the Russian bonds held by private individuals, in France and Great Britain, and also include in any credit which might be granted a sum sufficient to pay the $36,000,000 worth of bonds held by individuals in the United States and which have matured.
3d.
That the needs of the government for the purchase of war material and railway supplies can only be met by substantial credits allowed the Kolchak government by the Associated Powers.

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The immediate practical measures suggested are:

1st.
Release of the bank notes now stored at Vladivostok.
2d.
Approval of the contracts now being negotiated with the American Bank Note Company for the printing of additional bank notes. The object of these measures is to exchange as soon as possible a standard form of bank notes good technical quality for the various kinds of monetary tokens now circulating.
3d.
An understanding among the Associated Governments to buy at the prevailing rate of exchange such rubles as they may require for the maintenance of their troops and for other activities in Russia. This is already being done by the French and British Governments, seemingly forced to make a grant of credits by the Associated Governments. I will discuss this last suggestion in a separate telegram, when I have completed my estimates of the minimum credits which would be required for railway supplies, for military supplies and for economic assistance, et cetera.

Morris