File No. 861.00/2021
The Consul at Vladivostok (Caldwell) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7 p.m.]
Following telegram received from Harris, Irkutsk:
[June] 13. Have just returned from investigation of conditions along Siberian Railroad line as far west as [omission]. There is a counter-Bolshevik movement in progress throughout whole of central Siberia. Taking advantage of presence Czech trains scattered all along railroad from Penza in Russia to Nizhneudinsk, a point about halfway between Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk, counter-Bolshevik or [temporary] Siberian government are in possession of Tomsk, Taiga, Novo Nikolaevsk, Kainsk, Kansk, Nizhneudinsk, and probably Omsk. The Czechs have remained neutral except where they have been attacked by Red Guards. Situation is serious owing to arming of war prisoners and enlistment of them in Red Guards as internationalists. All telegraphic communications between Irkutsk and Vologda and Moscow interrupted since a fortnight. I have stopped all attempts to use good offices between Czechs and Bolsheviks to facilitate movement of trains to Vladivostok owing to counter-Bolshevik movement which would involve us in factional internal strife. Under present conditions Czechs refuse to deliver up arms and are prepared to fight. I was accompanied by party, Drysdale and Warner of Department of State, who will also report. Found no evidence of [omission] Royalist movement. Harris.
Peking, Tokyo informed.