861.01/153: Telegram
The American member of the Inter-Allied Railway Committee (Smith) to the Secretary of State, transmitted by the Consul at Vladivostok (Macgowan)
[Received October 17, 1:45 a.m.]
550. [From Smith:]
[“]English Acting High Commissioner, showed me copy of telegram sent by English Secretary of State to British Ambassador at Washington to tell American Department of State that all English authorities in Siberia agree that it is either Kolchak or the spread of Bolshevism over Siberia. He has sent reply to the Foreign Office and at the same time forwarded a copy to the British Ambassador at Washington, in which he asked that his name be excluded from this list. I know that he has not sent telegram of this import to London,87 for none of the English here seem to hold that idea and I have talked to many of the English officers in Siberia and none of them have ever said to me such statements, and those who have been to Omsk have been more condemnatory of the Government than these here. General Knox told me then nothing could be done here without the confidence of the people behind the Government. This telegram has been shown to the Acting High Commissioner and has his sanction. Smith.”
Repeated to Tokyo.
- i.e., that English representatives in Siberia favor support of Kolchak?↩