Evening star., 1932-10-09
US. .DEN1ESLYTT0N
REPORT ON SIBERIA
Responsibility for 1918 Inva.
sion Disproved in Documents
Already Published.

ooSoFCiy eAidO tAAC ASPoAe Va tA1S 1yS-
ton Commission on Manchuria had vir-
tually implied American responsibility
for allied Intervention in Siberia in
1918, i'll which Japan participated, be-
came a matter Of concern here yester-
day, particularly in view of the State
Departments recent publication OF
documents showing that the United
States had opposed the venture from the
beginning.
The immediate indication was that
the diplomatic communications and
documents dealing with dispatch of
American soldiers to Siberia in the
closing days of the war and the occu-
patton of territory not relinquished by
Japan until the Washington Arms Con-
ference will stand as the answer to the
implications of the Lytton Commission.
The commissions statement was made
In connection with an account of how
China, having lost control of Northern
Manchuria to Russia, decided, at the
time of the allied intervention, to re
assert her sovereignty in this area"
Charges U. S. Proposal
"At first" the Lytton report said
''her action was restricted to partlcl-
patton in the allied intervention 19l8-
2O) which. in connection with the cha
otic conditions rapidly developing after
the Russian revolution, in Siberia and
Northern Manchuria, had been proposed
by the United States of America for the
double purpose of protecting the vast
stores of war material and supplies ac-
cumulated at Vladivostok and of assist
ing the evacuation of some $4,000
CzechosloVak troops"
William r. Castle, Undersecretary OF
State, said that the statement OF the
Lytton Commission that the Siberian
expedition was proposed by the United
no comment would be offered. How
ever in his references to the contempo-
rary documents. Undersecretary Castle
showed plainly that the department did
not agree with the statement in the
Lytton report. Further, the department
apparently does not regard further eX-
PLANTATION necessary nor consider that
failure to challenge it involves danger
GUS possibilities.
Numerous documents recently pub
1ished by the State Department in VOL
ume 2 of Foreign Relations of the
United States, 1913" dealing with
Russia show that the United States
held out in 1918 against Russian and
Siberian Intervention, while the other
allied nations insisted upon it. On
April 8, 1918, Jules Jusserand French
Ambassador to the United States, in a
communication to Robert Lansing, Sec
retary of State. said that both France
and Great Britain favored the project
and urgently commended" it to the
United States.
Lansing Shows Reluctance.
The record further shows previously
on January 16, 1918, Secretary Lansing
replied to an earlier message of Ambas-
Sador Jusserand informing him that the
United States was not convinced that
the Russian situation required the send
ing of troops to Irkutsk. Secretary
Lansing said:
1T is believed that it would be likely
to offend those Russians who are now
in sympathy with the aims and desires
which the United States and its CO.
belligerentS have at heart in making
war and might result in uniting all fac
tions in Siberia against Them
The Supreme War Council on July 2,
1918, dispatched a final appeal for
American support and the United
States, with every show of reluctance.
decided to send a limited number of
troops to Siberia to protect supplies and
aid the Czecho-Slovak troops only. In
and aide memoire July II, 1918, ad-
dressed to all allied Ambassadors, the
State Department said:
Limits on Venture Desired
Military action is admissible in Rus
sia, as the Government of the United
States sees the circumstances, only to
help the CZechoslovaks consolidate their
forces and get into successful Coop
Grafton with their Slavic kinsmen and
to steady any efforts at self-government
or self-defense in which the Russians
themselves may be willing to accept
assistance"
The memoire added that it was the
official American Judgment that mill
tary Intervention there would add to
the present sad confusion in Russia
rather than cure it, injure her rather
than help her and that it would be of
no advantage in the prosecution of our
main design, to win the war against
Germany"