File No. 861.00/1926
The Consul at Vladivostok (Caldwell) to the Secretary of State1
[Received June 2, 1.45 a.m.]
Just received from United States Consul General Harris, Irkutsk, a telegram stating Czecho-Slovak troops fighting with armed prisoners [Page 179] of war near said city and that telegraph communication with Moscow and with Vologda interrupted. A copy of the message will be forwarded first opportunity, after admittable [difficult] deciphering which cannot be finished before the steamer taking this telegram leaves for Japan. Local telegraph commissioner has informed me also, yesterday, confidentially, that there was fighting at several points on the railway west of Irkutsk, between Czechoslovaks and combination of Bolsheviks and prisoners of war attempting disarm former.
As I stated in my telegram of yesterday local telegraph office was yesterday instructed by the Moscow Soviet not to receive further cipher telegrams from me. Therefore code telegrams must be sent by messenger to Japan or else Harbin for their transmission as the Brooklyn’s wireless already crowded and is working badly to Peking.
- Sent via the Consulate General at Yokohama.↩