File No. 861.00/1306
The Chargé in China (Spencer) to the Secretary of State
[Telegram]
Peking, undated.
[Received March 16, 1918, 8.17 p.m.]
[Received March 16, 1918, 8.17 p.m.]
Drysdale reports as follows:
- Twelve hundred unarmed prisoners at Nikolsk under very little restraint. They have town liberty, Bolsheviks fraternizing with them and would furnish arms in case of emergency. Thousand reserve infantry, hundred Red Guard and low-grade railway employees Bolsheviks. Majority of population and Cossacks unfriendly to Bolsheviks.
- Thirty-five hundred unarmed prisoners including sixty officers properly guarded at Spasskoe; Bolsheviks not allowed to fraternize. Little probability of prisoners being armed. No reserve, no Red Guard.
- Hundred and five Nikolsk Red Guard with battery of four 3-inch guns, caissons and ammunition en route Blagoveshchensk to aid Red Guard against Cossacks.
This telegram has been sent to Francis and Tokyo.
Spencer