Office of the Historian

File No. 861.00/1064

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Russia (Francis)1

[Telegram]
Washington, February 14, 1918, 5 p.m.

2065. Your 2336, 23492 and other recent telegrams. Department approves your course and desires you gradually to keep in somewhat closer and informal touch with Bolshevik authorities using such channels as will avoid any official recognition. This Government is by no means prepared to recognize Bolshevik government officially. Department’s previous instructions are modified to this extent.

Lansing
  1. Repeated to the diplomatic representatives in Great Britain (No. 6569, Feb. 14), France (No. 3184, Feb. 14), Japan (Feb. 15), China (Feb. 15), and Rumania (Feb. 19), for communication to the governments to which they wore accredited.↩
  2. Ante, pp. 368 and 370.↩