Mr. Wurts to Mr. Blaine.
St. Petersburg, May 19, 1892. (Received June 3.)
Sir: On the 30th ultimo I received a telegram from you as follows:
Conemaugh, Spencer, captain, sailed Philadelphia for Riga; cargo, over 5,000,000 pounds provisions; Russian sufferers.
I have now to report the arrival at Riga, on the 13th instant, of said vessel, sent by the Russian famine relief committee of Philadelphia, and that by extraordinary dispatch it was discharged within forty-eight hours, its cargo being immediately transported to seven railway trains, consisting of two hundred and twenty-two wagons, for apportionment among fifteen provinces, and consigned to ninety-five centers and persons for distribution.
As in the case of the Indiana and the Missouri, this legation had made the necessary arrangements with the committee of the British-American Church of St. Petersburg and the special committee under the presidency of the Czarowitz for the discharge and distribution of the cargo of this the third vessel from America with provisions for the suffering people of certain provinces of Russia.
The Conemaugh was met at Riga by Mr. Francis B. Beeves, of the Philadelphia relief committee, who superintended its discharge and approved the plan of distribution of its cargo, arranged before his arrival, Consul-general Crawford,-and Count Andrew Bobrinsky, delegate of the Czarowitz’s special committee, to attend to the loading and expedition of the trains to the provinces. The vessel was received with much the same formalities and honors as accompanied the arrival of the other ships with provisions from our country, which were related in Mr. Emory Smith’s dispatches on the subject.
I have, etc.,
Chargé d’Affaires ad interim.