After Russia's collapse, and especially after her capitulation, Japan's
intervention in Siberia was a subject of lively discussion in the allied
countries. Persistent rumors were circulated by the press to the effect
that large masses of armed and organized Teuton prisoners, numbering at
least 150,000 men, were ready to seize the Trans-Siberian railroad and
menace the military stores accumulated in Vladivostok. These rumors were
declared by the Bolshevist authorities to be a part of the propaganda to
bring disrepute on the Soviet power and encourage Japanese
intervention, which Lenine's Government regards as an encroachment of
world imperialism upon Socialist Russia.
On Friday, April 5, two companies of Japanese sailors landed at
Vladivostok. According to the report of the President of the Vladivostok
Soviet, the landing was effected in the presence of the Japanese Consul
and Admiral Kato, Japanese Marine Minister, without the consent of the
other allied Consuls. Later in the day fifty British armed sailors were
landed. There was also an unconfirmed report that American marines, too,
were landed. On the next day 250 more Japanese sailors entered the city.
In a proclamation issued at Vladivostok Admiral Kato explained that the
step was taken because of the murder of a Japanese soldier and in order
to protect the life and property of Japanese and allied subjects. The
Vladivostok Soviet protested to the Consular Corps. Resolutions of
protest were also passed by the Municipal Council and the local Zemstvo.
The news of the landing produced much excitement in the Bolshevist
headquarters in Moscow. In spite of the statement of the allied
diplomats that the act was a purely local affair of no political
importance, the Bolsheviki construed it as the beginning of the rumored
Japanese invasion. A statement issued by the Commissaries on April 6
declared that the killing of the Japanese soldier was part of a
prearranged scheme, and that "Japan had started a campaign against the
Soviet Republic." The following day the Izvestia spoke of the invasion
as the continuation of "the crusade against revolutionary Russia" begun
by imperialistic Germany. In a speech at Moscow on April 8 Premier
Lenine said: "It is possible that after a short time, perhaps even
within a few days, we shall have to declare war on Japan." Two days
later it was reported that the Russian Government had requested Germany
to permit the postponement of the demobilization of the Russian Army in
view of the Japanese landing at Vladivostok.
On April 11 the Consular Corps of Vladivostok officially informed the
local Zemstvo that the landing of allied sailors had been made necessary
by conditions of anarchy in the port, and that the troops would be
withdrawn as soon as order had been restored.
On March 16 the American Ambassador, Mr. Francis, made the following
statement:
The Soviet Government and the Soviet press are giving too much
importance to the landing of these marines, which has no
political significance, but merely was a police precaution taken
by the Japanese Admiral on his own responsibility for the
protection of Japanese life and property in Vladivostok, and the
Japanese Admiral, Kato, so informed the American Admiral,
Knight, and the American Consul, Caldwell, in Vladivostok. My
impression is that the landing of the British marines was
pursuant to the request of the British Consul for the protection
of the British Consulate and British subjects in Vladivostok,
which he anticipated would possibly be jeopardized by the unrest
which might result from the Japanese landing.
The American Consul did not ask protection from the American
cruiser in Vladivostok Harbor, and consequently no American
marines were landed. This, together with the fact that the
French Consul at Vladivostok made no request for protection from
the British, American, or Japanese cruisers in the harbor,
unquestionably demonstrates that the landing of allied troops is
not a concerted action between the Allies.