Office of the Historian

File No. 861.00/2791a

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in China (MacMurray)

[Telegram]
Washington, September 25, 1918, 1 p.m.

You will please ask the Chinese Government if there would be any objection if the American forces now in Siberia under General Graves should be ordered to Harbin or some similar place on the line of the Chinese Eastern Railway.

[Page 392]

For your information: The change from Vladivostok to Harbin is considered very desirable by this Government so that the closing of the port at Vladivostok and the severe winter there will not interfere with the shipment of supplies to the American forces.

Immediately that you obtain the answer of the Chinese Government, you will communicate it to me.

Lansing