OCR Text |
Show MIGHT BE FATAL. The stato depfirtment has advised General Graves, the American commander com-mander in the Omsk region, to permit per-mit resumption of arms shipments to" the Kolchak forces, overruling the action ac-tion taken by the commander in reprisal re-prisal for tho publication of newspaper articles in a Vladivostok newspaper disapproved by General Graves. The commander had threatened the arrest of tho offending editor if tho authorities did not suppress the newspaper in question. ques-tion. The Omsk government was notified noti-fied that unless the activities ,of certain cer-tain military chieftains wero crimped ho would recommend that the American Ameri-can government refuse to render further fur-ther assistance to the Russians fighting fight-ing the Bolshevist regime. The Omsk government, in a temperate tem-perate reply which seems to have presented pre-sented tho situation in a calmer mn- ner, hinted that the matter was one for the American government to dispose dis-pose of, rather than the military commander com-mander in Siberia, a view which ap-1 pears to have been accepted by the Washington authorities. That view unquestionably was that withholding arms at this moment, with a "wide offensive of-fensive against the Bolshevists smarting, smart-ing, might prove fatal to i he success of operations. General Graves does not appear to have acted with the utmost prudence in this connection. Undoubtedly he has full power to proceed against a hostile , press, notwithstanding the apparent reluctance re-luctance of the Kolchak government .to move against overzealous editors, but his action in stopping tho supply of guns destined to the loyal Russians-went Russians-went beyond the necessities of the situation. sit-uation. There is no reason to suppose sup-pose that' t lucre is any widespread antagonism an-tagonism to Americans in Siberia. What feeling exists doubtless is due to the anxiety of the non-Bolshevist Russians to secure every possible help in thoir fight against the neds, coupled with a failure to understand the narrow nar-row limitations under which Graves's forces are working. "While tho American Amer-ican troops have no duty save the pro-, tection of railway communication, the ! British and Japanese combat the Bol-ishcvists Bol-ishcvists wherever they appear. "In otlter words, the Americans are ! doing police duty only, whereas the Russians have believed their presence in Siberia was to fight the common enemy. Tho Graves incident is embarrassing, em-barrassing, but not necessarily a hindrance hin-drance to co-operative measures within the limits of American purposes in Siberia. |