861.00/3719: Telegram
The Chargé in Russia ( Poole ) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received January 24 [25?], 9:30 a.m.]
786. I have delayed supplementing my 720, January 3, 3 p.m., until the return of General Ironside from a personal investigation of the causes of the failure of the offensive reported therein. In a confidential conversation today he confirms what is intimated in my written despatch number 1274 of the 15th instant5: that this failure is to be attributed chiefly to the intoxicated condition of the British colonel; also to the failure of a British detachment accompanying Russian partisan troops to advance in the face of the enemy. He exonerates the Russian troops from all blame.
He says that the failure of the offensive in question has made possible the present Bolshevik offensive and confirms the views of the Military Attaché communicated in 781, January 23, 8 p.m. He says that the military situation which has been unsatisfactory since he took command, has now become critical, especially in the region of Shenkursk. He has given orders to evacuate this point but there is still danger that two American infantry companies and 50 engineers may be surrounded there by the Bolsheviks. Shenkursk is second in importance Archangel and its evacuation will have a very bad moral effect.
Ironside attributes the unsatisfactory military situation to overextension, poor quality of the British officers first sent here whom he is replacing as fast as possible, to the homesickness and general low morale of the French troops, [the inexperience of the American regiment,] the large number of Slavs and other foreigners in its enlistment, and the inadequate leadership of Colonel Stewart.6 He is urging upon the War Office the need for reenforcements.
Foregoing sent to Washington [Paris] under number 786 [17] same day.