File No. 861.00/2494
Admiral Knight to the Secretary of the Navy (Daniels)
[Copy received from Navy Department, August 3, 1918.]
Conditions have been reported bad by Colonel Robertson, British military attaché from Peking, who has just returned from Ussuri. Czechs are greatly outnumbered and are withdrawing southwards. The roads and bridges which they recently constructed will be destroyed in their advance [retreat].
The 800 British troops arriving to-night will be pushed to the front immediately instead of remaining to hold Vladivostok. It is uncertain when the French troops will arrive who will also be rushed to Ussuri front.
[Page 327]The German force is from ten to twenty miles inside the Manchurian border, and the Semenov defeat is more complete than at first reported.