The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-08-08
FIRST DETAILS OF | EXPEDITION ID | RUSSIA ARE GIVEN Two Regiments of Regulars From Philippine Islands
 to Form Nucleus
MAJ. GEN. GRAVES TO COMMAND AMERICANS
Sailing of Expedition Will Not Be Announced, But News of Arrival of Forces Will Be Made Pub- lic--Jap Forces Numerous

Washington, August 7.-The first details of the American military aid to be sent to Si-
 beria for the protection of the
 rear of the Czecho-Slovak forces in their movement west
 ward against Germans, Aus trians and hostile factions were made public today with the an nouncement by General March, chief of staff, that Maj. Gen.
 William $. Graves will com mand the American forces, the nucleus of which will be two regiments of regulars from the
 Philippine Islands.
 General Graves now is in command
 of the eight divisions at Camp Fre-
 mont Cal The regiments to form the
 vanguard of the American contingent.
 General March announced, will be tho
 Twenty-seventh and Thirty-first, nei-
 ther of which is recruited to war strength. This force will be supple mented byS additional troops from the United States, the number of which
 has not been revealed. The chief of staff said, however, that the American lexneditionf wou'S rot be a large one. In announcine tAe selection of Gen. eraI Graves to command the American forces, General March took occasion to state that so far as he knew no commander chief for the whole ex- petition has yet been designated He
 recalled the fact that this could only
 be done by international agreement
 such as was found to be necessary to concentrate the supreme command of
 all the entente and American troops
 in Europe in the hands of General
 Foch. From other sources 1t was
 learned that negotiations are now un-
 der way to this end and that the chief
 of staff of the Japanese army, General
 Baron Uyehara, has been suggested.
 and his name is now under considera-
 tion as commander-in-ch
 General March said that the sailing of the expedition or of General Graves
 will not be announced, but that upon arrival of the forces the news will be made public. It was not stated whether an announcement of the size of the American contingen, may be expected. The Japanese force, in conjunction with the Chinese who will act under Jap- anese direction, probably will be nu- mernus. In fact. Japan is preparing to send into Siberia any number of troops necessary to carry out the declared purpose to give effective aid to tho Czecho- Slovaks.
 | Rapid development of the revolt in | the northern provinces of Russia against the bolshevik rule is noted with 1 keen interest by the officials here. i Though not necessarily bound by the solemn pledge of the American govern | ment, as set out in Acting Secretary Folks statement last Saturday, to re- I frain from any kind of intervention in | the political affairs of Russia, the | British and French military commando | CTS of the comparatively small forces operating in that section of Russia ap- pear to have confined their activities to l military and naval movements. So if | the rapid rise of anti-German senti- ment extending to the elements in the | bolsheyik faction which had been | charged with surrendering Russia's in ] dependence to Germany has been l largely attributable to the presence of the allied forces in northern Russia,
 that fact is declared by officials, while
 very welcome, to be purely incidental