File No. 861.00/1880
The Minister in China (Reinsch) to the Secretary of State
No. 2002
Peking, April 23,
1918.
[Received May
27.]
Sir: I have the honor to enclose copies of
a despatch from the Consulate at Harbin, dated April 20, and dealing
with action of military units in Harbin.
The units against the action of which objection is made are parts of
the forces of Colonel Semenov, to whom Major Barrows’s
report refers.
I have not been able to change my opinion that it is undesirable to
give assistance to Colonel Semenov. While Major Barrows’s
letter is favorable to him, it indicates that his force of 2,000,
including many Chinese and Buriats, is not of itself able to
accomplish anything. Major Barrows says: “He
terribly needs a supporting force of a few real soldiers.” The
Semenov contingent would
therefore appear to be a very weak reed to lean upon.
Should Semenov make an advance
at this time, it is a foregone conclusion that he would be driven
back by the Ked Guards. If this should happen it might be
represented, on the part of those interested, that an attack was
being made by the Bolsheviki upon Chinese territory.
Major Drysdale, the military
attaché of this Legation, considers that it would be vain to attach
any hopes to Semenov, and
that any support given him would have a most unfavorable reaction
throughout Siberia and Russia.
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure]
The Consul at Harbin (Moser) to the Minister in
China (Reinsch)
Sir: I have the honor to enclose
herewith four copies of a letter received by me to-day from the
editors of the three Russian newspapers at Harbin, to which was
attached for my information a copy of their letter to the
English, Japanese and French Consuls, respectively (also
enclosed in quadruplicate).1
[Page 134]
The military units to which reference is made are the force of
Colonel Semenov and the
officers’ battalion still in course of organization at Harbin
under Colonel Orlov, to cooperate with him.
There has never been any question that Semenov’s force has
occasionally acted in a lawless and high-handed manner, the most
recent incident having occurred three days ago at Harbin when
six of Semenov’s officers
seized the person of a Greek merchant and attempted to mulct him
for a sum said to be eighty thousand rubles. A full report of
this incident can be found probably at the French Legation.
Sympathetic as I am bound to be with the aims of the Semenov movement, it is
undeniable that the methods of this guerrilla leader have
aroused a strong opposition among the Russian people; and that
unless he is brought under more rigorous restraint (supposed to
be exercised by General Pleshkov) without
further delay, the continued association of his project with the
support “of the Allies may be of greater detriment than service
to the cause of the Allies. I respectfully suggest that the
Legation bring this matter to the attention of General Horvat during his
sojourn in Peking, and, in connection with my previous despatch
of this date enclosing copies of Major
Barrows’s letter, to the notice of the
Department of State.1
I have [etc.]
