Speech #670184580

The Japanese at this time were preparing a special Russian army which was to keep the civil war constantly aflame. to create a condition of perpetual uncertainty as to the morrow. and to undermine every Russian authority of whatever nature it might be. soviet. bourgeoisdemocratic. or monarchist. At the head of these forces there was constantly available the bandits and murderersthe Cossack Atamanus Semenov and Kalmykov. established on the highways and the railroad main line. who robbed. tortured. and shot down the peaceful population when it wa.- so unfortunate as to meet with these criminals. And both Kalmykov and Semlenov were in possession of great sinus of money for the hiring. of bandits among the Cossacks. former Tsarist otieers who did not wish to make their peace with the revolution and had become accustomed to a dissolute life. ignorant natives of the Buriat and Mongolian tribes. as well as Chinese KhmnKhuses (bandits). they had weapons in great abundance. even machine guls. Meanwhile conversations were going on between the allied Governments on the subject of intervention on a large scale. At the time when the French and English were framing great plans for the renewal of the Russian participation in the war with Germany. plans closely associated with the active struggles of the Czechs and the antibolsheviks against the soviet power. the Aiericaus gave evidence of a more sober view of things. particularly of the value of military intervention as a means to this end. and formulated the task of the American trools as the " guarding of supplies that might later be of assistance to the Russian troops anti also the giving of aid such as the Russians would be ready toaccept in the organization of their own selfdefense." Only with this object. the United States declared. would they collaborate at the present time with the Governments of France and Great Britain in the Murmansk and Archangel region on the one hand. and " for the defense of the rear of tle CzechoSlovaks moving westward " on the other hand. but the latter wils the more important consideration.