Evening star., 1918-06-21
RUSSIA PLEA MADE
|. BY Mr.. ROOSEVELT
He Would Have Allies Send
Siberia Army as Nucleus
for National Defenders.
BY THEODORE RoosEvkLr,

bf THEODOHE ROOSEVELT
Russia has been thrown under the
iron tyranny Of German militarism
and capitalism by the bolshevists OF
the Lenlne type. The Russian peo-
Piles are slowly awakening to this
bitter truth. The far-sighted. the
Russians of genuine patriotism. have
long been awake. but the peasants.
who are at heart good. but who are
ignorant and misled. are now awak-
ening also, with plenty of them, es-
pecially among the Cossacks, well
aware that submission to Germany
now means death for Russia.
Plenty of them are eager to fight,
and know well that only by success
full war on a grand scale can Russia
now be saved and regenerated. but
they must have help. and the help
be too late. and America can best
give the help.
Peasant Woman's Personality.
A Russian peasant woman. who can
hardly write her name, Is here to
ask that the help be given Immediately.
and that it be given in Siberia She
is a remarkable character in her
strength. her simplicity. her direct
straIghtforwardness and her intense
earnestness and entire disinterested-
ness. She was a major in the Rus
sian army until the Russian army
was betrayed and dissolved. Her
peasant husband was killed in the
ranks. She served in the ranks Of q
a regiment of women. She has been
wounded four times. She was born
in Tomsk, Siberia. She Is peasant
OF the best class. in habits of thought
and belief, and life and sympathy.
but she has a wide outlook She
knows that America will keep her
word about Siberia, just as America
kept her word about Cuba.
She asks that for our own sake.
just as much as for Russia's sake. We
through vladivostok or Harbin, or
through both. She asks US to an
nounce that after the war is over We
guarantee to return to Russia her
country with the right for her people
to decide for themselves how they
are to governed. and that in the war
we fight with and for all the Rus
SLAMS. who will fight against Ger
many for Russia, and that We night
to the death against the Germans and
against all Russians who side with
the Germans.
Cossacks and Germans.
Siberia is in chaos. Eastern Siberia
has plenty of food and contains large
elements of the population. especially
Cossacks, who would promptly join
with an allied force which they be-
lieved would in good faith aid in the
reconQuest of Russia for the purpose
of giving 1t back to the Russians
themselves. West Of Lake Baikal 10
a region dominated by a German
army. some twenty thousand strong.
composed of former German prisoners
Of war, who are organized under the
name of the German red guards and
who are the permanent adherents of
German autocracy. but who help the
conquer Russia for the German au-
tocracy.
West of these again a stretch of
country. which includes the passes
of the rural mountains. is held by the
splendid csechs; who; by the way.
warded by seeing an Independent
Czech-Slovak commonwealth estab-
lished, just as there must also be q
great Jugo-Slav commonwealth.
At once there should be in east 81
IBERIA an American army of say 10000
men, with a Japanese army Of the
same size and British imperial army
of as nearly the same size as possible.
II there was difficulty as to the COM
mand of the allied forces. borrow
some man of great reputation-Joffre.
for instance-from France. Let the
woman major above spoken OF and
other Russian friends of the peasant
and of a Russian republic 60 in ad-
vance to make clear that the allied
army comes only to restore Russia to
the Russians. Let all Russians who
join be paid by the United States on
tho Same scale as our own troops,
and, il necessary, let the United
States guarantee the payment of the
Japanese Move against the German
red guards as quickly as possible and
then push instantly to join the heroic
Szechs in the Ural.
Organization Of Railroads
Let the railroads be organised back
OF the army by our best railroad men