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Show U. S, TROOPS ARE NEEDE0JNS1BERIA VITAL ELEMENT IN MAINTENANCE MAINTEN-ANCE OF RAIL TRAFFIC AND PREVENTION OF RIOTS. President Wilson Replies at Length to the Resolution Proposed by Senator Johnson of California Recently Adopted. Washington. President Wilson informed in-formed the senate Friday, in response to a resolution by Senator Johnson uf California, that the presence of American Amer-ican troops in Siberia was a "vital element" in the restoration and maintenance main-tenance of traffic on the Siberian railroad rail-road and that under the agreement with Japan they could be withdrawn only when the American railway experts ex-perts operating the road were withdrawn. with-drawn. The president said Siberia could be protected from a further period of chaos and anarchy only by keeping the railroad open, and that, lacking the prime essentials of life, the people there were looking to the United States and the allies for economic assistance. as-sistance. This already is being extended ex-tended and additional supplies are to be sent forward. ltoving bands having no connection with any organized government in Russia Rus-sia are menacing the railroad, the president said, and, consequently, pro-, tection by the military is necessary. American troops, he said, now are engaged en-gaged in guard duty at Vladivostok and around Verchne Udinsk. A small body also is at Harbin. The original purposes of the American Ameri-can military expedition, Mr. Wilson wrote, were twofold: The saving of the Czecho-Slovak forces and the steadying of the efforts of the Russians Rus-sians at self-defense or the establishment establish-ment of law and order in which they might be willing to accept assistance. Major General Graves, commanding the expedition of 8000 men, was specifically spe-cifically directed not to interfere in Russian affairs, the president said, but to support wherever necessary John F. Stevens, the American railway engineer, who is carrying out the work of rehabilitating the Siberian railroad, under the direction of the interallied committee. |