Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Russia, Volume I

File No. 763.72/4531

The Russian Chargé ( Onou) to the Secretary of State

No. 354

Washington, May 9, 1917.
[Received May 10.]

Excellency: Referring to my verbal communication of May 7 instant, I have the honor to transmit herewith to your excellency a memorandum relative to the Extraordinary Embassy which the Russian Provisional Government proposes to send to the United States.

Accept [etc.]

C. Onou

[Enclosure—Memorandum]

Extraordinary Embassy from Russia to the United States

The object of the Special Mission is to express the gratitude of the Provisional Russian Government for the initiative taken by the great Allied Republic in the official recognition of the democratic régime which has been established in Russia.

Prof. B. A. Bakhmeteff, Assistant Minister of Commerce and Industry, shall be placed at the head of the Extraordinary Embassy which will include special delegates of the Ministries of War, Commerce, Finance and Foreign Affairs. Mr. J. Korostovets, ex-Minister in Peking, is designated as delegate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The special mission, composed thus of competent delegates of different departments, will be empowered to confer and to negotiate with the Government of the United States on military, naval, financial and railway matters, pertaining to the present world war. The detailed list of the members of the Extraordinary Embassy, the time of the departure from Petrograd and the route which will be chosen shall be communicated later.