861.00/4683: Telegram
The Chargé in Russia (Poole) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received June 12, 3:25 p.m.]
1274. 131 to Paris. The following are the more important statements made by General Ironside in an interview published in the local press:
With the local Russian troops and the troops which have just arrived from England, I have all that is needed to carry out plan for this summer, which is to transfer the base of the Russian National Army from Siberia to Archangel. Everything needed will be shipped to Archangel in the course of the summer. As Archangel is only eight days from England there no longer [will] be delays in getting material to Kolchak’s front. As soon as the second contingent of volunteers arrives I shall move up the river and take Kotlas. I have everything ready in the rear at Archangel—barracks, warehouses, et cetera, so that what happened at Vladivostok, where there were no freight warehouses at the required moment for storing ammunition, will not happen to me. All that is necessary is to give the Russian National Army the indispensable assistance in American [ammunition,?] clothing, food, and for a short time the support of our soldiers who will remain as a reserve in case of need. The excellent [Page 633] quality of these reserve elements (that is the British troops) gives me the assurance of carrying out promptly the campaign in the north enabling us in the course of the summer to establish ourselves at Kotlas, Vologda and Petrograd. This is not all of course but the entire northern base will then be in our hands, and we can get busy with the center and south. I cannot speak of the center now because of the complete disorganization of transport in Bolshevik Russia. Much work will be required to reorganize this transport in some way. I do not speak either of the south where all kinds of misunderstandings are taking place and where ethnical variety complicates the situation as well as in western parts of Russia. We have had much work to do and much remains but the main portion is done—a purely Russian force has been created which is our main movement, our only task in the liberation of Russia from Bolshevism and the revival of our ally. We contemplate no other ends political or commercial nor have any selfish aims.