Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917–1972, Public Diplomacy, World War I

9. Cablegram From the Committee on Public Information Commissioner in St. Petersburg (Sisson) to the Chairman of the Committee on Public Information (Creel)¹

St. Petersburg, January 13, 1918

Presidents speech placarded on walls Petrograd this morning² stop one hundred thousand copies will have this display within three days stop three hundred thousand handbills will be distributed here within five days stop proportionate display Moscow by end of week stop YMCA agreed distribute million Russian and million German copies along line stop other channels into Germany being opened stop Isvestia official government newspaper nearly million circulation through Russia printed speech in full Saturday³ morning with comment welcoming it as sincere and hopeful stop much of other newspaper comment still cynical but shifting rapidly as speech makes its own mighty appeal stop German version in hands printer now stop calls editorial⁴ useful also Thompsons interview⁵ stop what was comment Nova Mir comma New York Bolshevick paper stop place third allotment my credit New York stop will hold balance second allotment in New York as moving picture reserve stop will have to transfer third to Russia stop before I send bank instructions as to method cable rate of rouble exchange stop first transfer was unfavorable as purchasing value of rouble is only ten cents stop in this case all right to deposit with National Bank Commerce

Sisson ⁶

1. Source: National Archives, RG 63, Entry 106, Correspondence, Cables, Reports, and Newspapers Received from Employees of the Committee Abroad, Nov. 1917–Apr. 1919, Box 2, Bullard—Sisson—Russia—Cables. No classification marking. Sent via the Postal Telegraph-Commercial Cables Company. The time “1:27 a.m.” is printed on the last page of the cablegram. Creel forwarded the cablegram to Wilson on January 15. (Papers of Woodrow Wilson , vol. 45, p. 596)
2. See footnote 4, Document 7. Telegrams from several Embassies reporting on the reception of the President’s speech are printed in Foreign Relations, 1918, Supplement 1, The World War, vol. I, pp. 17–28 and 32–36.
3. January 12.
4. Reference is presumably to War for Peace (1918), a publication in the CPI’s War Information Series edited by Arthur D. Call.
5. Not further identified.
6. In telegram 2363 from St. Petersburg, February 13, Sisson further reported: “Circulation of the President’s message January eighth practically completed. Totals three million two hundred and fifty thousand copies without account of results of separate printing and distribution at Odessa, Tiflis, Rostoff, Vladivostok, Chita and Omsk.” According to a handwritten notation on the first page of the telegram, Creel was sent a “paraphrase” of the February 13 telegram on February 18. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Decimal File 1910–1929, Box 731, 103.93/45)