The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Russia (Marye)
616. Your 334, October 28. It appears to be desirable to explain to the Russian Government that on August 16 the American Ambassador at Berlin asked the American Red Cross whether it would be willing to send to Russia nurses and doctors “who would distribute relief and give actual medical assistance to Germans and Austro-Hungarians now in Russia and Siberia, their expenses and [Page 1046] salaries to be paid by German Government.” The request of the German Government to the American Red Cross was not submitted to the Russian Government, as perhaps it should have been, inasmuch as a part of the American unit sent to Russia is still at work in the Russian hospitals, and the Red Cross and the Department assumed there was no objection on the part of the Russian authorities to the American Red Cross performing actual medical service, and also in view of your No. 253, of August 9,1 stating “that Russian Government assented to Red Cross operating in Siberia and Russia in a manner to it most convenient.”
The Department should be advised promptly whether the Russian Government will permit the Red Cross to render actual medical service in behalf of Germans and Austrians in Russia or desires the Red Cross to discontinue rendering the same service to Russians in Germany, which it is now doing and is prepared to do on a larger scale if Russia desires.