ABSTRACT
IT is time that we turned our attention again towards Siberia, where the adventure of rescuing the Czechs was still dragging on, and was destined to last exactly as long as the Great War itself had done. Preparations were made for the exploitation of the resources of North Saghalien, chiefly timber and petroleum, workmen and plant being sent for this purpose, and it was stated that three and a half million yen was to be spent on public buildings in Decastri on the mainland, which pointed to an expectation that the occupation was permanent. Elsewhere the Japanese found it increasingly impossible to make any headway. Brutal Cossack officers were ready to set up as robber barons so long as they could depend on Japanese bayonets to protect them from the vengeance of their victims, but beyond this the restoration of conditions such as the “true Russians” really wanted made no progress whatever. It was impossible to carry on a Japanese administration anywhere. The language difficulty was great, and no Russians, whatever their political complexion, were willing to act as intermediaries in getting Japanese orders carried out On the other hand, it was necessary to have some sort of relations with the Japanese, and this could only be effected by obtaining a recognition which was still denied to Moscow. A Conference was arranged to be held at Nikolsk-Ussurisk on April 1st in order to organise a united Government for Eastern Siberia, but the Japanese, hearing of this, performed the coup already described, by which all attempts at self-government were crushed simultaneously
from Vladivostok to Blagoveschensk, in every town along the railway. The movement was immediately taken up in VerkneUdinsk, where the Far Eastern Republic was proclaimed on April 6th, under the leadership of Alexander Krasnoschekoff, the master-mind of East Siberian politics, whom, earlier in the intervention, a Japanese regiment had for three months hunted through the forests like a wild beast. A Conference was called at Verkhne-Udinsk, and there was some fierce debate. The only subject on which all were agreed was that the Japanese must be got rid of, and those who had suffered most by the intervention were the strongest advocates of declaring unity with Moscow and defying them. The longer they debated, the more attractive did this desperate but unmistakable expression of their hatred appear. The situation was saved by the receipt on May 11th of a telegram from General Oi, in command at Vladivostok, congratulating the new republic on its formation and promising that the Japanese would evacuate as soon as a stable government was formed. It was not till five days later that a telegram arrived from Mr. Chicherin, the People’s Commissary for Foreign Affairs in Moscow, recognising the Far Eastern Republic as a separate and independent State.
