861.00/5682: Telegram
The Consul at Vladivostok (Macgowan) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 18, 3 a.m.]
599. Gaida raised on his train and on Russian Volunteer Fleet steamship Tomsk alongside, green and white flag of autonomous Siberia at 8 o’clock this morning. Yakusheff, recognized head zemstvo group, and others of this faction, are aboard Gaida’s train. Gaida seized all locomotives in central railway yard, and his partisans are patrolling exits of yard while Kalmikoff’s armored train is pocketed in blind end of yard. Railway operatives have ceased work, curious groups forming in the streets where automobiles, cavalry, and other military squads of both sides circulating without mutual hindrance. Gaida opened recruiting station at his train and is reported to have 2,000 men under his command. Probably desertions from Rozanoff supplied majority of the recruits. Either through desertions and political defections or through armed collision, issue here will be decided by tomorrow.
Later. Battle began near railway station 3 o’clock afternoon. Proclamation extracts in … code.
Repeated to Tokyo, Harris, Stevens.