The Washington times., 1922-04-08
j. s. CODDL|NG
SEMEN0FF, WHO
SLEW SOLDIERS
State Department, However,
Looks on While cossock
Is In Tolls.
BY POLITICUS.

Two months ago Washington OBJ
servers tried In vain to discover the
identity of the powerful influences
that induced the State Department
to brush aside the law and let Cos
sack Semenoff land in the United
States. Now Cassack Semenoff Is
trying to find out whether those
powerful influences" are powerful
enough to get him out OF the hands
Of the New York police.
The State Department, which Ia
bored 30 nobly in behalf of the
anti. Bolshevik Cossack. declares 1t
10 taking no interest in his present
difficulty. The officials Of that de-
partment have never relished the
job Of appearing to defend the man
who is accused OF the murder OF
American soldiers. Some Of the
highest representatives Of that d.
vision of the Government were
rather flippant about the whole mat
ter when it first became known
that Semenoff had been granted per-
mission to come to the United States
by the State Department. Much Of
this flippancy wore off. however.
after the War Department and the
Department of Labor, to say nothing
Of the American Legion, got on the
trail of the man whose reign OF
terror in Siberia was written In
blood on the records of the Ameri-
can Was Department.
Looking For Money.
The report of Semenoff's plans to
visit the United States reached this
country during the last weeks OF
the arms conference. At that time
his representatives declared that he
was headed this way for the purpose
of raising money among New York
banking interests to finance another
revolution in Siberia. Nobody ever
revealed the identity Of the in
terests. however, who were to be 20
lavish with their money. His COM
ing Immediately aroused trouble,
and the records of the War Depart
ment, which told a ghastly story Of
the Semenoff butcheries in Siberia,
were turned over to the Immigra-
ton Bureau of the Department of
Labor to furnish the basis for his
exclusion as an undesirable alien.
For q time IL seemed as though
this was to be accomplished, de-
spite the interest which the State
Department had taken in making IL
possible for Semenoff to visit the
United States. But there was an un-
explained slip at Vancouver, and the
immigration authorities announced,
with an appearance of regret, that
Semenoff had been able to induce
the Representatives Of the Immigra-
ton Bureau here to grant him q
transit permit" That was several
weeks ago. and Cossack Semenoff 10
still "in transit" His transit" took
him to Washington. While here he
lived in the best Dupont hotel, was
interviewed faithfully as a visiting
Russian statesman, permitted to
weep over the outrages Of the Boil
shevists In Russia and to predict
their speedy downfall, and to in
dulge in the usual buncombe about
how deeply he had been impressed
by his visit to the United States.
II he conferred with any officials
Of the State Department while here
it was not publicly recorded, nor 10
there any record of q report to Sec
retary Hoover Of the Department of
Commerce, who is the Cabinets
Russian expert.
Now on His Own.
At the State Department, it was
declared today that Semenoffs diff
ficulties at the hands of the law in
New York had not been made a
matter Of international interest, nor
was there any expectation that they
would be. They were looked upon
as purely private difficulties of
private citizen, involved in a civil
proceeding. Nor did any one at the
State Department think that the
British, French, and Japanese gov
who had financed the
original Semenoff ventures, would
to obtain State Depart
ment Intervention in behalf Of their
former protege.
But II will be interesting to know
what American interests were DOW
erful enough in the first place to
pull down the bars Of the law and
to permit this Cossack to land in
the United States from which vixi-
liant immigration authorities had de.
barred much more harmless invad-