RUSSIAN OPINION
In Russia proper the Soviet authorities and radical public opinion opposed foreign intervention of any kind. Late in May the official Bolshevist organ printed an article asserting that Russia desired from the Allies no help intended to drag her back into the war, but that Russia would appreciate in the highest degree any assistance toward the improvement of transportation and communication facilities and the rehabilitation of her economic life." Even the moderate press found foreign military intervention undesirable. The Moscow Prizyv, the official organ of the Social Revolutionaries, however, declared editorially that "the intervention of the Allies alone can give us the real military strength and indispensable support for thrusting back the yoke of the German, and for reconstituting Russia." On June 11, Boris Bakhmeteff, the Russian Ambassador at Washington, transmitted to the State Department a resolution adopted by the Central Committee of the Constitutional Democrats, (also known as Cadets,) the Russian Liberal Party. The resolution pointed out that the Cadet Party did not recognize the Brest peace, and looked to the Allies for the amelioration of Russian conditions. The statement emphatically denied the assertion that the Russian democracy was opposed to allied aid. It insisted, however, that the success of the action would depend upon "the support of national feeling in Russia." The resolution concluded: "It is further imperative for Russian public opinion to receive assurances that the expedition will be co-ordinated with the inviolability of the rights and interests of Russia, and that the actions of all the Allies on Russian territory will be performed under international control."
SENATOR KING'S RESOLUTION
On June 10 a resolution favoring intervention in Russia was offered in the Senate by Senator King of Utah. It was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. The full text of the resolution follows:
Whereas, The people of Russia after centuries of political servitude are finally about to realize their aspirations for liberty and the constitution of a federal republic; and,
Whereas, The innate sense of justice, desire for public order, and the community life of the Russian people promise a sound moral basis for the institutions of liberty and the equal rights of men under the law as incorporated in a republican form of government; and,
Whereas, It is the traditional policy and the interest of the United States of America to promote and protect the progress of liberty and the principles of democracy as incorporated in republican institutions; and,
Whereas, The people and the Government of the United States hailed with great and sincere good-will the prospects for the establishment of these principles in the great domains of Russia for the permanent welfare, political dignity, and beneficence of the Russian people; and,
Whereas, The Imperial Government of Germany, by intrigues and propaganda, and in perfidious violation of the pretended peace with Russia, designs to destroy the Government of Russia and the unity and nationality of the Russian people, and for this purpose is attempting to separate Russia into small vassal States in order to more effectually bring the people, territory, and resources of Russia within the German power; and,
Whereas, In the pursuit of this perfidious purpose, Germany is now subjecting Russia to industrial and economic servitude, and is attempting to recruit troops from among the people of Russia to replenish her depleted armies, and to promote her felonious purpose in the world; and,
Whereas, The Russian people desire to establish a republican form of Government and are in sympathy with the cause of the United States of America and of the Allies, and would welcome assistance in neutralizing German intrigue and propaganda, and in repelling the intrusion of German power; and,
Whereas, German troops are now operating in Russia and are making advances, with a view to taking possession of Russian territory, including Siberia, and subjecting the same to political domination and industrial servitude; and,
Whereas, The cause of the Allies and the principles for which they wage war are thus placed in jeopardy; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate of the United States that a commission be sent to Russia to co-operate with the American Ambassador and other representatives of our Government to overcome and neutralize German propaganda in Russia and to aid in Russia's economic, industrial, and political freedom; and be it
Further Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate of the United States that a military expedition be organized and sent by the United States of America, in conjunction with the Allies, including Japan and China, to co-operate with the armies of the Russian people to repel the advance of German arms and to expel from Russia German military power and establish therein the authority of the people and Government of Russia.
The policy of the Washington Government in June remained one of nonintervention in Russia, but there was a strongly representative and widely increasing public opinion that the United States should join with Japan, China, and the Allies to aid Russia and prevent further German penetration. This sentiment was especially outspoken and vigorous in the West and on the Pacific slope, where previously anti-Japanese and anti-Chinese prejudices had predominated.
INTERVENTION URGED
A Supreme Council was held at Tokio June 7, attended by Prince Fushimi, Field Marshals Yamagata and Terauchi, (the Premier,) and Lieut. Gen. Oshima, the Minister of War. A joint conference of the Field Marshals and the Admirals was summoned for June 10.
The Entente Governments of Europe were declared in a Tokio dispatch dated June 15 to be bringing increasing influence to bear to induce Japan to intervene in Russia. Among the several French officers who arrived in Tokio to consult with the General Staff was Major Pichon, who was head of the French military mission to Russia, and whose recall was demanded by the Bolsheviki. Major Pichon was reported to be striving for intervention in Siberia as a military necessity with the same energy that he opposed Rumania's entrance into the war as an ill-advised step. Major Pichon formerly was Military Attaché at Bucharest. The partisans of intervention were finding support from A. I. Konovaloff, formerly Minister of Trade and Industry in the Russian Provincial Government, and especially from Jules Destrée, who was appointed Belgian Minister to Petrograd in August, 1917. M. Destrée, who is a Socialist, arrived in Japan after vainly seeking to return to Europe across Finland.
"It is urgently imperative for the defense of the interests of the Entente that there shall be a liberation of the Russian people from Germanic domination," M. Destrée declared. "The Trans-Siberian Railroad is the only remaining communication with the outside world, and this could be destroyed at any time by the German prisoners, of whom there are 20,000 under arms in Siberia. I saw armed Germans at every station, ostensibly allies of the Bolsheviki. The destruction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad would mean the complete abandonment of Russia to the Teutons."