Russia also reckons on the Allies, especially America, for support in rehabilitating her industries and developing her resources. A large order for agricultural machinery has been placed in the United States, and the shipping of the goods has already begun. According to a London dispatch the Bolsheviki are sending a commission to the United States to settle Russia's accounts with American firms and make arrangements for future trade relations.
THE JAPANESE LANDING
After Russia's collapse, and especially after her capitulation, Japan's intervention in Siberia was a subject of lively discussion in the allied countries. Persistent rumors were circulated by the press to the effect that large masses of armed and organized Teuton prisoners, numbering at least 150,000 men, were ready to seize the Trans-Siberian railroad and menace the military stores accumulated in Vladivostok. These rumors were declared by the Bolshevist authorities to be a part of the propaganda to bring disrepute on the Soviet power and encourage Japanese intervention, which Lenine's Government regards as an encroachment of world imperialism upon Socialist Russia.
On Friday, April 5, two companies of Japanese sailors landed at Vladivostok. According to the report of the President of the Vladivostok Soviet, the landing was effected in the presence of the Japanese Consul and Admiral Kato, Japanese Marine Minister, without the consent of the other allied Consuls. Later in the day fifty British armed sailors were landed. There was also an unconfirmed report that American marines, too, were landed. On the next day 250 more Japanese sailors entered the city. In a proclamation issued at Vladivostok Admiral Kato explained that the step was taken because of the murder of a Japanese soldier and in order to protect the life and property of Japanese and allied subjects. The Vladivostok Soviet protested to the Consular Corps. Resolutions of protest were also passed by the Municipal Council and the local Zemstvo.
The news of the landing produced much excitement in the Bolshevist headquarters in Moscow. In spite of the statement of the allied diplomats that the act was a purely local affair of no political importance, the Bolsheviki construed it as the beginning of the rumored Japanese invasion. A statement issued by the Commissaries on April 6 declared that the killing of the Japanese soldier was part of a prearranged scheme, and that "Japan had started a campaign against the Soviet Republic." The following day the Izvestia spoke of the invasion as the continuation of "the crusade against revolutionary Russia" begun by imperialistic Germany. In a speech at Moscow on April 8 Premier Lenine said: "It is possible that after a short time, perhaps even within a few days, we shall have to declare war on Japan." Two days later it was reported that the Russian Government had requested Germany to permit the postponement of the demobilization of the Russian Army in view of the Japanese landing at Vladivostok.
On April 11 the Consular Corps of Vladivostok officially informed the local Zemstvo that the landing of allied sailors had been made necessary by conditions of anarchy in the port, and that the troops would be withdrawn as soon as order had been restored.
On March 16 the American Ambassador, Mr. Francis, made the following statement:
The Soviet Government and the Soviet press are giving too much importance to the landing of these marines, which has no political significance, but merely was a police precaution taken by the Japanese Admiral on his own responsibility for the protection of Japanese life and property in Vladivostok, and the Japanese Admiral, Kato, so informed the American Admiral, Knight, and the American Consul, Caldwell, in Vladivostok. My impression is that the landing of the British marines was pursuant to the request of the British Consul for the protection of the British Consulate and British subjects in Vladivostok, which he anticipated would possibly be jeopardized by the unrest which might result from the Japanese landing.
The American Consul did not ask protection from the American cruiser in Vladivostok Harbor, and consequently no American marines were landed. This, together with the fact that the French Consul at Vladivostok made no request for protection from the British, American, or Japanese cruisers in the harbor, unquestionably demonstrates that the landing of allied troops is not a concerted action between the Allies.
The Czar's Loyalty to the Allies