Paris Peace Conf. 861g.00/2
Professor W. L. Westermann to Mr. William C. Bullitt
A Memorandum has come from the American Embassy in London13 containing a letter signed by the Delegate of the Georgian Government, concerning the claims of Georgia to recognition as an independent state.
It is of interest to note that the Georgian Government is now advancing a claim to the Sandjak of Lazistan, which is the eastern section of the Trebizond Vilayet. Regarding this portion of the former Turkish Empire, I wrote you a note last week, suggesting this very thing as quite desirable on ethnographic lines. The Georgians also set up a claim to the district of Olti and the district of Ardahan in the province of Kars in Trans-Caucasia which, by the general agreement between the Georgian, Azerbaidjan and the Armenian Republics of Trans-Caucasia, had been temporarily assigned to Armenia.
It is a hopeful sign that these different republics are beginning to crystallize their desires and are willing to present these difficulties to the Peace Conference for consideration and decision.
- Not printed.↩