763.72119/3052

The Acting Secretary of State to the British Chargé ( Barclay )

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the memorandum of November 30, 1918, from your Embassy containing the information that the Swiss Government recently received from the Bavarian Government a communication stating that the population of the Palatinate and of Bavaria fear that they may be either interned or deported from their homes for compulsory labor and that they are departing in panic from their homes, and that the Bavarian representative in Switzerland has made a suggestion that a proclamation of a pacifying nature should be addressed by the Allies to the population of these districts. It appears that the Bavarian representative further suggests that such a step would be very re-assuring and would fortify the authority of the ideas of the Entente among the Germans and act as a deterrent to Bolshevism.

In reply to your request that the views of this Government regarding the desirability of issuing a statement on the lines indicated be made known to you, I beg to state that inasmuch as this appears to be a question in connection with the carrying out of the conditions of the armistice, it is being referred to Paris for consideration by the representatives of the Associated Powers.

Accept [etc.]

Frank L. Polk