New York Times
RECALLS OUR CONSUL FROM VLADIVOSTOK
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State Department Announces Order to Close Offices, but Makes No Comment.
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OBSCURE CHARGES BY REDS
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Report by Way of Tokio Says Action Was Taken Because of the Sale of
‘Some Arms to Whites.’
WASHINGTON, April 26.—The consulate at Vladivostok, through which the United States has maintained representation in Russia, has been ordered closed.
S. Pinkley Tuck, Consult and Charles H. Stephan, Frederick S. Fray and Edward B. Thomas, Vice Consuls, will proceed to Tokio as soon as their affairs at Vladivostok are wound up, and will wait there for new assignments to be made by the State Department.
The decision to close the consulate was bade known today, without comment, by the State Department. It is known that the Soviet Government held, after it took over Vladivostok from the Far Eastern Republic, that a number of foreign consulates should be closed, but the American consulate was not included among those named, and it was believed it would continue to function.
Word was received recently, however, that the Soviet authorities were preparing to cancel the exequatur of Consul Tuck, issued by a previous Russian Government, and that he and the Vice Consuls would be expected to leave Vladivostok next month. It was then decided to close the consulate without wiating for the expiration of the time limit fixed.
There is still a possibility that the Soviet Government may reconsider its decision with reference to the closing of the American consulate, since former unofficial representatives in Washington of the Far Eastern Republic are understood to have cabled Moscow recommending that Consul Tuck and his staff be allowed to remain in Vladivostok. There is no disposition on the part of the State Department to close the consulate, it is said, except that created by the desire to prevent embarrassment by keeping it open after the decision of the Soviet officials has been made known to officials here.
Among the consulates previously closed in Vladivostok are those of France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Esthonia, Poland, Latvia, Czechoslovakia and Georgia. It is not known at the State Department whether the consulates of Great Britain, Italy, Germany and Austria are affected by the latest decision of the Soviet authorities.
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TOKIO, April 26 (Associated Press). — The American and British consulates at Vladivostok are to be closed in the near future, according to reports received here.
The vernacular press prints special dispatches from Vladivostok, evidently inspired in Soviet quarters, wherein it is stated that the American Consul has decided to close his consulate because of a "deportation order" issued by the Soviet authorities followin the sale of "some arms to Whites." (The Whites are anti-Bolshevist forces.)
The withdrawal of the British Consul is said to be in accordance with the recently adopted policy toward the Soviet Administration.
