861.77 Chinese Eastern/509: Telegram
The Chargé in China (Perkins) to the Secretary of State
1094. My 1087, December 5, noon. Following from American Consul at Harbin:
“December 5, 1 p.m. It is probable that, judging by quick return of Tsai and Li, they were told that no new conditions would be accepted by Soviet side and that an announcement of what has transpired will not be made for a few days at least. Many local people believe that if Mukden hesitates, Tsitsihar will next be visited by Soviet aeroplanes. A panic among the troops there would increase tremendously the danger of the soldier rabble Chalainor and Manchuria Station because of lack of communications. However, unconfirmed reports indicate that a few hundred Soviet troops, perhaps only irregulars, were used to demoralize the Chinese forces at Chalainor and Manchuria Station and to change them into a rabble. Certainly conditions at both places are quiet except that the Soviet state police have arrested Russians on proscribed lists and that non-Russian foreigners are descending upon Harbin and [fear?] of looting here by local troops. The Japanese Consul General will propose today to the local consular corps that it request the Chinese authorities to send special train on which representatives of the various consulates tomorrow travel as far west as possible to ascertain the fate of and to remove, if possible and necessary, non-Russian foreigners, mostly Japanese (one American), from Hailar. It is difficult to get news from Chalainor. It is reported about one hundred Russians, presumably railway employees, have been killed by Chinese panic-stricken [Page 397] soldiers at Buketu and other stations. Trains can proceed as far as Buketu, but it is believed that that station is still overrun by rioting Chinese soldiers.”
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