File No. 861.00/1619
The Consul at Vladivostok (Caldwell) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7.31 p.m.]
Referring to your telegram April 4.1 Now learn Professor Masaryk passed through here about three weeks ago under assumed [Page 127] name en route Washington. He visited French Consul and stated forty or fifty thousand Czecho-Slovaks will arrive here in near future en route from Russia to France where they join French Army. First regiment under French general now on Amur Railway should arrive here within ten days. French Consul here without instructions regarding preparations for housing, feeding and transportation which can not be arranged on short notice. French Consul therefore requests assistance Allied Consuls. Can you ascertain from French Government when we may expect transports to arrive here to take these men? We can probably arrange to secure barracks but food problem serious unless can have steamer running regularly from Tsingtao with beef and flour while men are here. If transport not soon due might be better send men to Manchuria where food should be easily procured along railway. If not already provided for by plans of French Government immediate steps must be taken for provision and transportation.
May be ultimately total of 100,000 these men.
- Not printed.↩