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Filed June 12/18
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[floating text: j?]
After an analysis of the Russian situation, in which the President would find much of his own thought expressed, Mr. Browne suggests a programme, substantially as follows:
1. The Allies must decide whether the soviet government is really a power in Russia; then, if it is, they must begin immediate cooperation with that government. Mr. Browne goes to show that the soviet government is a power. "It has how been in undisputed power for five months without serious armed oppositions except in the Ukraine, where the reactionary rada, mortgaged to Germany, is bolstered up by German divisions. The soviet elements in the Ukraine are conducting an active guerrilla warfare against the German and rada troops. They retook Odessa. The authority off the soviet extends from Petrograd to Vladivostok and from Archangel to Baku. Only German or Japanese bayonets will prevent this soviet power from lasting many months longer."
"Recognitfon (of the soviet) is not absolutely essential. It desires the Allies' recognition more then anything else in the world, but next it desires the Allies’ cooperation.
"The soviet asks the aid of American and French officers in organizing a new revolutionary army; also aid in removing large stores of military munitions beyond the Volga, where they would be out of reach of the Germans should the latter again advance."
2. We should foster and encourage the resentment which is already crystallizing in Russia against Germany, and also encourage the revolutionary spirit for war.
3. We should make no concerted invasion of Siberia and should not permit Japan to invade Siberia. Such an invasion would imediately result in the turning of Russian resentment away from Germany and against the Allies. "If we are able to assure the
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soviet government that such a move will not occur, we shall see a wonderful change in the Russian situation in the next six months.
4. Suggests sending of 40 to 200 American army officers for the purpose of helping to organize the new revolutionary army; also experts in oil and coal mining, to assist in the reorganization of the oil and coal fields.
5. Suggests industrial commission for the purpose of arranging tonnage and purchasing raw materials for shipment to America and England, to prevent the available natural resources of Russia from going to Germany through taking them ourselves; on a trade basis, of course.
Says some allied cooperation along these lines has already been started.
"Democratic Russia is getting angry with Germany for the first time since the world war began... The Russian situation is better for the Allies today than at any other time since the revolution began... Had we known Russian psychology or spent as much time studying Russia as Germany spent we should have understood... Let us play our ally’s government for better or for worse, lest Germany beat us to it!"
C.L.S.
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