The Cordova daily times., 1920-06-11
HOW JAPCO(JP
 WAS MADE IN
 VLlADLVOSTOK

NIKOLSK, Siberia, June II (by As 5 sociated Press) The Russian provi- s1onal government of eastern Siberia was about to set up a government which would be in the nature of a buffer state between Japan and the Bolsheviki government of Russia and western Siberia when the Japanese military forces seized control of Vlad- ivostok and all the chief centers of the Maritime Province in April. It has since been announced that the Japanese were establishing a buffer state in part of the same territory The Japanese coup was accompanr jed by rather heavy fighting at Nix olsk where the Russians resisted and held the Japanese at bay while the majority of the Russian forces with drew. The Russian losses at this place are estimated at 200 killed and 200 wounded; the Japanese at 42 kill ed, 81 wounded
 Two days before the Japanese sprung their surprise the Provincial constituent assembly, sitting at Nix olsk, had voted to establish a separate government including all Siberia east of the Selenga river, which flows through Verkhne- -Udinsk into Lake
 Baikal-a government over which the Moscow soviet would have no author ity except in a purely advisory cap acity.
 The step was taken at the inves- tigation of Vilenski, special diplomatic cOmmissar of the soviets in the Far East, and was carried through with the support of the Communication shevik patry. The new government was to consist of the five members , of the present provisional government , (sOcial revolutionaries or moderate
 liberals), and two delegates from each
 province to be elected by their res
 pective constituent assemblies.
 The conference was still in session,
 having completed most of it's work
 when the Russian staff received the
 news from Vladivostok that firing had
 begun there and that the Japanese
 were taking control Or the town. The
 Japanese staff, accusing the Russians
 of having fired on some of their sen-
 tinels in Vladivostok had issued tele-
 graphic orders to all Japanese detach-
 ments in the Maritime provinces to
 disarm the Russian forces in their vii
 cinity.
 By the next morning the Japanese
 garrisons in Vladivostok, Razdolnoye,
 Nikolsk, Spasskoe and HabarOvsk (ex-
 tending about 400 miles north from VIadivostok along the Ussuri railroad)
 were in the possession of their respec-
 tive towns
 The Russian forces, commonly
 known as Partisans, having received
 orders from the provisional govern
 ment not to let themselves be drawn
 into hostilities, offered no resistance
 and either surrendered, or, opportUn-
 ity permitting, withdrew to the hills
 Nikolsk, however, was the headquart
 CTS of a Russian army corps, in pro-
 cess of formation, so that it's garrison
 numbered between 5000 and 10000
 men. The corps commander, Audrey [ eff, a young Russian officer fought delaying action with great rapidity and captured 1,.600 of the Russians.
 forces to the hills where his ranks
 were afterward swelled by other fug-
 itives.
 The Japanese forces engaged num-
 bered 5000 or 4,O00 men under the command of Major General Odagiri.
 In the course of the fighting the
 Russian commander stationed a bat taIion of 300 men with two field pieces and machine-guns on a large hill overlooking the city, the key to the situation. A company of Japanese l 100 strong, approached the hill and the captain assured the Russian com mander that he had come merely to occupy the hill under orders, but not l to fight, WhereupOn the latter allowed