File No. 861.00/1405
The Consul at Vladivostok (Caldwell) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11 p.m.]
Following received from Irkutsk yesterday:
Just returned from railway where saw train box cars, first and fourth-class carriages [omission] those men with outfits. Four trucks loaded with field carts, two with machine guns, visible also many other cars. Occupants exclusively Hungarian prisoners dressed Hungarian boots, caps, Russian uniforms, rifles; talked freely to some, all saying they were no longer prisoners but free soldiers of the Red Army from Omsk where they left their officers except two or three [omission]. They pretended ignorance of destination. One party skilfully demonstrated American and Vickers machine guns. Station master reports many similar trains. Russian officer, who has been twenty years with Singer Company at Krasnoyarsk, came here last night and said that prisoners there threw officers into prison vans and are coming east in several trains.
At the meeting last night in Irkutsk suburb, 2,000 railway mechanics called upon to drop work and join Red Army. Refused to a man, saying: “Let Allies, devil himself, come and make order, we will not be cannon fodder.” Similar meeting Chita while Drysdale there in some [with] like results.
Jenkins wires from Chita 400 Austrian prisoners voted join Red Army. Major Drysdale,1 Huntington, Macgowan.
- Lieut. Col. Walter S. Drysdale, Military Attaché at Peking.↩