Laudator Temporis Acti

The deportation of aliens is a topic much in the news these days. Over a hundred years ago there were congressional hearings concerning the deportation of Siberian warlord Grigory Semyonov from the United States. Here is an excerpt from the hearing, as reported in Deportation of Gregorie Semenoff. Hearings ... relative to the deporting of undesirable aliens. April 12, 13, 17, 18, 1922 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1922), pp. 12-13 (testimony of Lieutenant Colonel Charles H. Morrow, 27th Infantry, United States Army):

Early in May, and before the Americans had taken over the sector at Verkhne Udinsk and Mysovaya, the interference of Semenoff and his officers and his military station commandants became apparent in the American sector. On May 16 they forcibly seized a car held by the American command and threatened to whip the Russian caretaker if he reported the facts. On May 28 a train of seven cars in charge of Captain Gilleland, Russian Railway Service Corps, was in the Verkhne Udinsk yards. The armored train demanded that one car of the R.R.S.C. train be turned over to the armored train. This R.R.S.C. train was a work train engaged in repairing and erecting telephone lines. The demand was refused, after which the officer in charge of the R.R.S.C. train was informed that if the car was not turned over within an hour the armored train would fire on him. On May 29 the armored train opened its ports, manned its guns, and trained them on these cars, which had been placed under charge of an American guard, but did not fire.

Captain Gilleland was my grandfather, Roy E. Gilleland. In this photograph he is the topmost figure, second from the right: