Office of the Historian

761.93/1720: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, June 15, 1943—10 a.m.
[Received 1:45 p.m.]

663. The following telegram, signed Ward,85 has been received from Vladivostok.

[Page 254]

“65, June 11, 11 a.m. Chang, my Chinese colleague, informs me in confidence that the Chinese Consulate[s] at Alma Ata, and Ixhan [Ili and?] Semipalatinsk and Tashkent, as well as that at or near Minusinsk, which until recently ignored the Chungking Government and recognized only the Sinkiang government, have now placed themselves under the Chungking Government. From some of his remarks I gather that this change was made at the instance of or with the assistance of the Soviet Government for the purpose of improving Moscow-Chungking relations. The pro-Sinkiang elements among the staffs of the above mentioned Consulates are being dispersed among the pro-Chungking Consulates (a Consul at Alma Ata is being transferred to Vladivostok as Vice Consul and the Vice Consul here is being sent to Minusinsk as Consul). The Consulates at Novosibirsk, Chita, Blagovyeshchensk, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok have been and remain pro-Chungking. Chang himself is an ardent Chungking supporter. The release of large numbers of Chinese who have been imprisoned in Siberia, principally in the Kolyma River basin, is further indication of the desire of Moscow to improve relations with Chungking. Released Chinese prisoners are stated to be passing eastwards through Novosibirsk en route to Tashkent and other Central Asian points at the rate of approximately 15 daily. The greater portion of these prisoners were, I am told, refugees who fled from Manchuria to Siberia during the Japanese invasion of 1931–1932. They were arrested, imprisoned and sentenced to penal servitude of several years for having entered the Soviet Union illegally. Upon completion of their sentences and after being at liberty for several days they were again arrested and sentenced for violation of police registration regulations. (Practically none of the refugees possessed passports.)”

Repeated to Chungking.

Standley
  1. Angus Ward, Consul General at Vladivostok.↩