ences. No government of any character can stand in this country without an economic reorganization. Such reorganization primarily revolves on two positive factors, first, currency, and second, transportation. Even the governments of Koltchak and Denikin are both likely to fail at any moment, due to the practical break-down in the distribution of commodities. There is in both of these areas not only ample foodstuffs for their populations but an actual surplus and yet there is here actual starvation. I attach one single telegram " out of a host as indicating the character of the situation, and in this special case of the Donetz Basin there is ample wheat not 500 miles distant if there were some form of currency in which the population could have confidence, and transportation with which to expect exchange of coal for wheat. This is only typical of many other instances. By and large, there can be no hope of any form of stable government unless these two primary things can be solved. It is already the defeat of Bolshevism and will be the defeat of any government that takes its place. The re-establishment of currency, transportation, the stimulation of production, and the normal flow of distribution, is sheerly a matter of some sort of economic dictatorship, backed by sufficiently large financial and moral support of the Allied Governments. These appropriations would need to be expended fundamentally in commodities and railway rolling stock for import into Russia and for the establishment of a currency. I do not believe that the sum involved is extraordinarily large if such an economic dictatorship could have command of the resources already in Russia. Furthermore, it appears to me that some such an economic commission, if placed upon an economic and not a political basis, could if conducted with wisdom, keep itself free from conflicting political currents and allow a rational development of self-government in Russia. I have no idea that such self-government can develop over night in a nation totally inexperienced and without tradition, but there can be no foundation on which such government can emerge so long as populations are mad from starvation and unemployment and the lack of the very necessities of life. This matter becomes of immediate importance if America is to have any hand in the matter, as the resources and organization at our disposal come to an end either upon the signing of Peace with Germany, or, alternatively, on the first of July with the expiration of the Acts with which you are familiar. I wish to add one suggestion to you in organization of such a commission. It is utterly impossible that it could be organized on Not printed. the basis of any Inter-Allied Commission with all the conflicting financial and trade interest that lies therein. It is necessary to set up one government as the economic mandatory, with the support of the other governments, and to set up some one man as the head of such a commission, who should choose his own staff for the great administration that will be involved. Such a staff could with judgment be composed of representatives of each nationality, but they must be definitely responsible to the head of such a commission and not independently responsible to different governments. Faithfully yours, HERBERT HOOVER Refusal by the Government of the United States to Countenance Further Attempts to Establish Relations with the Soviet Authority in Russia 861.00/5243b: Telegram The Acting Secretary of State to the Consul at Vladivostok (Caldwell) 91 WASHINGTON, September 9, 1919, 6 p.m. In a speech at Kansas City Saturday, September 6, urging the ratification of the Peace Treaty, the President made the following allusion to the situation in Russia and the character of the Bolshevik régime: "My fellow citizens, it does not make any difference what kind of a minority governs you, if it is a minority. And the thing we must see to is that no minority anywhere masters the majority. That is at the heart, my fellow citizens, of the tragical things that are happening in that great country which we long to help and can find no way that is effective to help-I mean the great realm of Russia. The men who now are measurably in control of the affairs of Russia represent nobody but themselves. They have again and again been challenged to call a constitutional convention. They have again and again been challenged to prove that they had some kind of a mandate, even from a single class of their fellow citizens. And they dared not attempt it; they have no mandate from anybody. There are only thirty-four of them, I am told, and there were more than thirty-four men who used to control the destinies of Europe from Wilhelmstrasse. There is a closer monopoly of power in Petrograd and Moscow than there ever was in Berlin, and the thing that is intolerable is not that the Russian people are having their way but that another group of men more cruel than the Czar himself is controlling the destinies of that great people. And I want to say here and now that I am against the control of any minority anywhere." "The same to the Commission to Negotiate Peace as no. 3071 (file no. 763.72119/6830c) to be repeated to Archangel, and to Constantinople for repetition to Vice Consul Burri at Ekaterinodar. Following passage, same topic, from speech delivered at Des Moines also on September 6: "What happened in Russia was not a sudden and accidental thing. The people of Russia were maddened with the suppression of Czarism. When at last the chance came to throw off those chains, they threw them off at first, with hearts full of confidence and hope and then they found out that they had been again deceived. There was no assembly chosen to frame a constitution for them, or rather there was an assembly chosen to choose a constitution for them and it was suppressed and dispersed, and a little group of men just as selfish, just as ruthless, just as pitiless as the Czar himself assumed control and exercised their power, by terror and not by right. And in other parts of Europe the poison spread. The poison of disorder, the poison of revolt, the poison of chaos. And do you honestly think, my fellow citizens, that none of that poison has got in the veins of this free people? Do you know that the world is all now one single whispering gallery. These antennae of the wireless telegraph are the symbols of our age. All the impulses of mankind are thrown out upon the air and reach to the ends of the earth. With the tongue of the wireless and the tongue of the telegraph all the suggestions of disorder are spread through the world. And money coming from nobody knows where is deposited in capitals like Stockholm to be used for the propaganda of disorder and discontent and dissolution throughout the world, and men look you calmly in the face in America and say they are for that sort of revolution, when that sort of revolution means government by terror, government by force, not government by vote. It is the negation of everything that is American, but it is spreading and so long as disorder continues, so long as the world is kept waiting for the answer of the kind of peace we are going to have and what kind of guarantees there are to be behind that peace, that poison will steadily spread, more and more rapidly until it may be that even this beloved land of ours will be distracted and distorted by it." Repeat to Harbin and Omsk. PHILLIPS 861.00/5252: Telegram The Chargé in China (Tenney) to the Acting Secretary of State PEKING, September 22, 1919. From [Harris at] Omsk. "389, September 20, 1 p.m. Have had President's Kansas City and Des Moines speeches on Bolshevikism published in Omsk papers. Same has created very favorable impression. Harris." TENNEY 861.00/5591a: Telegram The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Davis) WASHINGTON, November 4, 1919, noon. 6149. An Associated Press despatch from London November 2 credits the Daily Herald, a labor organ, with hearing on good authority that the British Government is considering favorably a proposal for a conference of Soviet Russia with the Entente Allies. It is said that the conference would take place in a neutral country and would be on the lines proposed for Prinkipo. Please comment. LANSING 861.00/5648: Telegram The Ambassador in Great Britain (Davis) to the Secretary of State 92 LONDON, November 14, 1919, 6 p.m. 3383. Your very urgent November 13, 6 p.m., to American Mission, Paris, regarding conference of Baltic States at Dorpat repeated here this morning as its number 426. Foreign Office states no foundation in report contained therein regarding British participation in Dorpat conference, that a British officer happens to be at Dorpat but he is under strict instructions not to discuss politics. Foreign Office also states that British representatives to Copenhagen conference shortly to take place regarding exchange of prisoners between British and Soviet Governments are similarly instructed. DAVIS 861.00/5670: Telegram The Ambassador in Great Britain (Davis) to the Secretary of State 3390.. ... [Extract] LONDON, November 15, 1919, 3 p.m. Press announces this morning departure for Copenhagen today of James O'Grady, Labor Member of Parliament for South of [South-East] Leeds and Secretary of National Federation of General Workers, to enter into negotiations with Litvinoff representing Soviet Government Russia for exchange of war prisoners, military and civil. "Not printed. 861.00/5666: Telegram The Ambassador in Great Britain (Davis) to the Secretary of State [Paraphrase] LONDON, November 15, 1919, 6 p.m. 93 [Received November 15, 6 p.m.] 3394. Your No. 6171, November 11, was delayed in decoding. According to a probably well-founded rumor Lloyd George's Guildhall speech was delivered without previous notice to his Cabinet colleagues. I am confirmed in this belief by Churchill's attitude while speech was being delivered. Three days later in answer to a direct question as to what Lloyd George meant Churchill replied that he presumed the Prime Minister meant that one must either fight or parley. On November 13 in the Commons Lloyd George answered questions. His replies, however, were characteristic in their lack of precision. He made four statements of policy: 1. The Commons should assume responsibility for any additional expenditure in support of Russian forces and determine what extra taxes should be levied for that purpose. 2. The British Government has always been prepared to take any responsible opportunity presenting itself to bring about a settlement of the Russian problem on conditions which would in fact bring to Russia peace, good order and constitutional government on terms which the people of Russia themselves are willing to accept. 3. An international conference is proposed at which the several serious outstanding problems which so far the Paris Conference has been unable to settle will be considered by the Ministers of the Allied and Associated Powers. Among these problems will be that of Russia. 4. No new policy will be inaugurated nor will the country be committed to any fresh action without the Commons having complete opportunity to discuss it. I do not get any meaning out of the Guildhall speech other than an indication that the Prime Minister is willing to parley with all Russian factions. The speech has not removed this impression. It is impossible to predict future policy because of apparent inconsistencies between statements by Lloyd George and other members of the Government. DAVIS 98 Post, p. 738. |