Office of the Historian

861.77 Chinese Eastern/192: Telegram

The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State

Peking, August 10, 1929—noon.
[Received August 10—9:35 a.m.]

695. My 689, August 8, 8 p.m.48 Following from American Consul at Harbin:

“August 9, 4 p.m. This morning fourteen cars of a freight train wrecked by explosives few miles from Harbin; arson attempted at Chalantun; and six lengths of rails removed, presumably by mounted invaders, between Hailar and Mietuhe [Mientuho]. Large number of Soviet employees are quitting the railway. Reported that General Boldyreff appointed commander so-called Soviet army of occupation49 and Beykker, former member of board of directors [of] railway, chief of staff. Chinese authorities have suspended travel by foreigners in extreme northwestern part Fengtien Province.”

MacMurray
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Gen. Vassili Blücher, known as “Galen” while a military adviser to the Chinese Nationalists in 1926–27; on August 6, 1929, he was appointed by the Soviet War Commissar Voroshilov to be commander of “The Special Far Eastern Army.”↩