File No. 861.00/3079
The Ambassador in Russia ( Francis ) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 29.]
Sir: … Permit me here to give some of the details and circumstances of the kidnaping which I have not given you before. … Several days after my arrival here when I was endeavoring to lessen the friction between the sovereign government and General Poole, the latter told me a man had said to him that he would take all of the government Ministers away some night and General Poole need know nothing about it. In reply to my inquiry as to what his answer was the General told me that he said the government should not be taken away; I thereupon impressed General Poole with the importance of protecting the Ministers, saying the overthrow of this government would strengthen the Bolsheviks greatly, weaken the regeneration of Russia and would be very injurious to the Allied cause, with all of which General Poole expressed assent. About six hours before the kidnaping occurred, or at 7.15 p.m., a conference adjourned after two hours’ session in my office at the chancery; the persons in this conference besides myself were Noulens, Lindley and Torretta, together with Chaikovski, Martyushin, Minister of Finance, and two or three others. We had adjourned to meet the following day at my apartment.
It has developed since that after leaving my office Noulens told Lindley that he had heard from a secret source that the Ministers were to be deported that night, but that he did not credit the report. Lindley went to General Poole and told him what he had heard, whereupon General Poole directed one of his aides to write to Chaplin that he had heard such a rumor, but did not think Chaplin could be contemplating such a move. This was at 8 p.m. The British Intelligence Bureau, of which Colonel Thornhill is chief, is just across the street from and immediately opposite the apartment occupied by the Ministers, both houses being on corners. The American troops had arrived on three transports about 1 p.m., September 3; one battalion had been sent up the Dvina River, another battalion down the railroad toward Vologda, and the third battalion was being quartered at Smolny Barracks, but had not yet begun its duty of patrolling the street, which was still the duty of British and Russian soldiers. There must not have been a patrol on the streets the night of the kidnaping, September 5–6, or even if [Page 532] there was it was instructed not to interfere with thirty soldiers who were taking from the house immediately opposite the British Intelligence Bureau the Ministers of the sovereign government and conveying them to a steamer at the wharf. …
I have [etc.]