861.00/3719: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Davis)
4278. Following telegrams received from Am[erican] embassy at Archangel:
[Here follows texts of telegrams from the Chargé in Russia, no. 781, January 23, 8 p.m., and no. 786, January 24, 7 p.m., printed ante, pp. 606 and 608.]
It occurs to me that an opportunity may offer for a frank discussion of the very serious condition disclosed at Archangel, especially with regard to the perilous situation of certain American contingents which may make it possible for you to suggest to the British what seems to be the present necessity of employing officers of specially sound qualifications and experience. It would seem that the Allied forces are not only very much outnumbered, but are also confronted with extraordinarily difficult physical conditions. For example: Mr. Simmons, a special agent of the Department of Commerce who has just returned from Archangel where he visited the front, says numbers of the Bolshevik troops are equipped with skis and can move over the deep snow with much greater facility than the Allied forces which not only have no skis, but also no skill in their use.