AMERICANS IN RUSSIA

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 15, 17 July 1918, Page 6

AMERICANS IN RUSSIA

"The American-British expedition," says one of yesterday's cablegrams, "ha 3 occupied the whole of the Murman Coast." There-is more in this than the military information it conveys. It means that the United States is definitely committed to intervention in Russia, for the landing constitutes intervention, whether its military and political purpose be great or small. If the United States Government participates in the Murman landing, but discountenances Japanese intervention in Siberia, the conclusion will present itself that President Wilson considers Siberian operations to have no immediate bearing on the war. Yot the trend of current reports is all in tho direction of proving that Siberia is very much in arms, that the Czechoslovaks are making a big bid for power, and that their sympathy with the Allies may very largely be governed by tho amount of practical sympathy that the Allies extend to them. Since the American participation in tho Murman operations emphasises the whole issue, an official statement of the Allied policy in the matter of intervention in Russia, is more than ever necessary. Russia is a problem to be considered as one whole, and piecemeal methods will not solve it. But there may be military as well as political reasons why the European portion of the project progresses, while the Asiatic portion appears to hang fire.