861.00/6672: Telegram

The President of the Technical Board (Stevens) to the Secretary of State

[From Smith:]

March 29, 6 p.m. Chita. Colonel Blunt74 arrived at Chita to-day. I read to him my past telegrams about the Reds. He fully concurs and adds following: Reds treated them very well. All illiterate under 35 years must attend school 2 hours daily, upon taking town inhabitants must clean streets and railways, women work 1 hour to show willingness, towns clean, no one allowed to live in cars, food situation improving everywhere, nullification of money caused some trouble soon adjusted, none of the reports about peasants fighting Reds true. Reds anxious to make working agreement with America and to obtain supplies, also that America send some one to study conditions in Russia. Blunt says leaders honest, industrious, businesslike in their methods and have confidence of all classes except speculators. … Smith.

Stevens
  1. Of the Russian Railway Service Corps, detained by the Bolsheviks west of Irkutsk; see telegram of Jan. 20 from the Consul at Harbin, p. 530.