861.00/4019
The Acting Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Reading)
Memorandum
The Acting Secretary of State presents his compliments to His Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador and in reply to the Embassy’s Memorandum No. 171 of March 5, 1919, has the honor to state that Minister Reinsch was informed of the reference of the matter in question to the British Minister at Peking and was instructed to consult with the latter concerning the request received by the British Government from the Union of Chinese Workmen in Russia and to telegraph his views.
Minister Reinsch has replied that it is felt that Bolshevik propaganda would find little material in China to work on as no social or class distinctions exist. He states that the Chinese Government is willing to have the workmen in question return but wants to know when and where they will enter China, for it is felt that among them are Manchurian bandits who might cause local trouble unless supervised.
Advices received by the Department of State from other sources indicate that the request from the Union of Chinese Workmen now under consideration is part of a plan for promoting an armed uprising of Bolsheviks in Siberia and for carrying on revolutionary propaganda and establishing Soviets in China.