File No. 861.00/3560
The Consul General at Irkutsk ( Harris ) to the Secretary of State 3
[Received January 2, 1919, 12.40 a.m.]
268. Current report to date. It is reported that Semenov has declared mobilization of Buriats and peaceful natives in Trans-Baikal.
Vice Consul Williams at Chelyabinsk under date 26th reports in substance that situation on Ufa front remains serious. During past [Page 467] ten days Ufa has been very generally evacuated, but troops still hold all fronts. English armored trains and French troops have just gone from Ufa to extreme fronts, neither being willing to go without the other. Bolsheviks’ Red Army broke through the line at Birsk, where they are most dangerous, but still 25 miles away from Ufa. No Red Guards are yet in Ufa. The sentiment among laborers in that section is strongly pro-Bolshevik. The soldiers on the fronts are continually slipping, perhaps to the enemy, in small groups including a few of the Siberian troops’ new reinforcements. This constitutes most serious danger.
The victory of the Siberian army at Perm has been complete. From 25th to 28th December, 31,000 prisoners, 120 guns, several thousand machine guns, 30 automobiles, nine armored trains, and the entire Bolshevik supply trains. The entire loss of Red Army is estimated at 60,000. The Russian commanded was Lieutenant General Pepelyaev, 28 years old, and an ordinary soldier at beginning of the war in 1914.
- Sent via the legation in China.↩