Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-02-03
RUSSIAN GROUPS
SHOW NO DESIRE
. FOR CONFERENCE
Only One Official Reply to
Councils Invitation Re-
{ Ceived, Says French
Foreign Minister.
By Associated Press.

Paris, Feb. 2.-Following up the
practice he instituted last Sunday of
meeting personally the newspaper
correspondents, M. Pichon, the
French foreign minister, today
frankly discussed some subjects
which are absorbing the attention Of
the conference itself and the public.
With reference to the suspended
effort to bring together the repre-
sentatives of the various Russian
pilitical sections and the peace com
missioners at a meeting at Princes
island, he said that so far there
had been only one official reply to
the invitation which the council he'd
sent out by wireless, and that had
come in the form of a document
sent by Russian gentleman, who
had been a member of the duma and
is now head of the government of
Crimea.
No Formal Replies.
He expressed a willingness to go
to Princes islands, but feared that
he would be alone so far as the
other Russian factions were concern
ed. The Russian groups in Paris
had written a letter to Premier
Clemenceau, saying they would not
go to Princes island but, their own
government had. not responded to
the invitation formally.
M. Pichon said he had noticed the
reply of the bolshevik government
as published in the newspaper, but
it had never been received officially.
M. Longuet, proprietor of Paris
newspaper, who received the COM
munication, had been denied use of
the French wireless to make reply
to the bolshevik government, be-
cause NJ. Pichon said he had been
informed in a note that there was
no authorization for the use of the
wireless for other than official COM
munications.
As to the Omsk government, Ad-
miral Kolchak, its head, had not
said that he would refuse to attend
Princes islands conference, but it
appeared that he was rather in
clined to do so.
Discusses Siberian Situation.
NTouching the situation in east
ern Siberia NJ. Pichon, in answer
to an inquiry, said that undoubtedly
the entente military forces there
were subject to the control of the
supreme war council in Paris. Cen
eral Janin of the Czecho-Slovak
forces was commander-in chief, so
far as the actual disposition and
movement of the troops were con-
cerned, but General Knox of the
British army was charged with the
control and transportation of all
supplies.
In reply to the suggestion that the
American troops might be with
drawn from northern Russia, in the
Archangel sector, if the Princes, is
land conference were not held, M.
Pichon said that the conference had
not yet considered what steps would
be taken in event Of failure and that
there had been no consultations up
on the subject since the invitations
had been sent.
Dispatches from Archangel sector
were not sufficiently definite yet to
justify any conclusion. Undoubted-
ly, he added, the bolshevik had
stronger forces there now than they
had before; so it had been con-
sidered safer to bring the allied
troops closer together. That was
all that could be said now, except
that he did not regard the situation
as dangerous and it might be said
that if the bolshevik were stronger
in the north they had become
weaker elsewhere.