File No. 861.00/2573
The Ambassador in Japan (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 27, 2.15 a.m.]
The military attaché of the Embassy was this morning called in conference with his colleagues by the vice chief of staff and advised that the remainder of the Twelfth Division consisting of approximately 10,000 additional men had embarked for Vladivostok on August 24, and that the Government further intended to send the Third Division now being mobilized at Nagoya to northern Manchuria by way of Harbin. This division consists of about 20,000 men. The vice chief of staff explained to Major Baldwin1 the strategic [Page 356] conditions which forced this sudden action and expressed privately to him the hope that our Government would fully appreciate the antithesis [urgency] of it. Major Baldwin is telegraphing to the War Department a detailed report of this conversation.
I have had as yet no advices from the Foreign Office.
- Maj. Karl F. Baldwin, Military Attaché at Tokyo.↩