CHAPTER VI
IN THE FAR EAST
(Tokio. April 6—20, 1918)
INSTEAD of going to America by sea direct from Vladivostok, as I wished, I was compelled by a number of obstacles to take the Manchurian railway and to travel right through Korea as far as Fusan and to sail thence for Japan. Therefore, on April 1, 1918, I started by way of Kharbin and Mukden, reaching Shimonoseki on the 6th and Tokio on the 8th. In Tokio I was almost in Europe again, thanks to the foreign Embassies. Mr. R. S. Morris was the American and Sir Conyngham Greene the British Ambassador. Mr. Morris asked me for a memorandum—destined for President Wilson on the state of Russia and Bolshevism, and submitted a number of questions to me. I answered them with the following short statement upon the need for a well-considered policy in Russia on the part of European Powers. After what I have said about Russia, it calls for no remark except that its date and the position at the moment should be remembered.
PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL.
Written April 10, 1918, in Tokio.
(1) The Allies should recognize the Bolshevist Government (de facto—the de jure recognition need not be discussed); President Wilson’s message to the Moscow Assembly was a step in this direction. If the Allies are on good terms with the Bolshevists they can influence them. The Germans recognized them by concluding peace with them. (I know the weak points of the Bolshevists, but I know also the weak points of the other parties; they are neither better nor abler.)
(2) The Monarchical movement is weak; the Allies must not support it. The Cadets and the Social Revolutionaries are organizing themselves against the Bolshevists; I do not expect any considerable success from either of these parties. The Allies thought that Alexeieff and Korniloff would win a big success on the Don; I did not believe it and refused to join them, though I was invited to do so by the leaders. The same applies to Semyenoff and others.
(3) The Bolshevists will hold power longer than their adversaries suppose. Like all the other parties, they will die of political dilettantism. It is the curse of Tsarism that it did not teach the people to work or to administer; and the Bolshevists have been