File No. 861.00/3034
The Minister in Switzerland (
Stovall) to
the Secretary of State
No. 4667
Berne,
September 30, 1918.
[Received October 23.]
Sir: Confirming my telegram No. 4926 of
September 27, noon,2
I have the honor to transmit herewith copy and translation of the
aide-mémoire, and enclosure thereto, of
the Swiss Government dated September 24 concerning the protestation
against acts committed by the Soviets in Petrograd.
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure—Translation]
The Swiss Political
Department to the American
Legation
Aide-Mémoire
Replying to the aide-mémoire which the
Minister of the United States gave to the President of the
Confederation, the Political Department has the honor to inform
his excellency that the Swiss Minister in Russia, at that time
Dean of the Diplomatic Corps at Petrograd, in the name of the
Diplomatic Corps handed a note of September 5 to the Council of
the Soviets, embodying the conversations of the chiefs of
missions with Commissioner Zinoviev. The American Legation will find
enclosed the text of this note, which corresponds in broad lines
with the contents of the American memorandum.
September 11 the Swiss Minister adhered to the new step taken by
General Brandstrom, then Dean of the
Diplomatic Corps, on his return to Petrograd.
The Swiss Minister in Russia has then already signed
protestations to which the American memorandum alludes, thus the
desires expressed by the memorandum are already realized, so far
as the Swiss Government is concerned.
Berne,
September 24,
1918.
[Subenclosure—Translation]
The Swiss, Danish, and
Netherlands Ministers, the Swedish, Norwegian, Spanish,
and Persian Chargés, and the German Consul
General, to the Soviet Commissar of the Northern
Commune (
Zinoviev)
The representatives of the Diplomatic Corps at Petrograd, having
been them selves witnesses of the arrest of great numbers of
persons of all ages and both sexes, and the summary executions
daily carried out by the soldiers of the Red Army, requested an
interview with Commissar Zinoviev, who received them on Monday, September
3. They stated that they had no intention of interfering in the
political contests at present disrupting Russia; but that,
taking a purely
[Page 698]
humanitarian point of view, they wished to express, in the name
of the Governments they represent, their profound indignation at
the reign of terror instituted in the cities of Petrograd,
Moscow, etc.
Without any other reason than that of gratifying their hate
against a whole class of citizens, without orders from a legal
power of any sort, crowds of armed men enter day or night into
private houses, plunder and steal, arrest and throw into prison
hundreds of unfortunate people entirely unconnected with
political straggles, whose only crime is to belong to the middle
classes, and whose extermination is proclaimed by the leaders of
the country in their own papers and in their speeches. It is
quite impossible for the poor distressed families to obtain any
information as to the place where their relatives have been
imprisoned; permission is denied them to communicate with the
prisoners and to supply them with the necessary food.
Such acts of violence, incomprehensible on the part of men who
profess their wish to promote the happiness of mankind, call
forth the indignation of the civilized world, now acquainted
with the events in Petrograd.
The Diplomatic Corps considered it its duty to inform Commissar
Zinoviev of the
feelings of reprobation which animate it. It has protested and
it does protest energetically against the arbitrary acts which
are being committed every day. The representatives of the powers
make all express reservations as to the right of their
Governments to demand the satisfactions which may be considered
necessary and to render personally responsible before the courts
all perpetrators of the criminal acts which have been committed
or may be committed in future.
They ask that the terms of the present note be brought to the
knowledge of the Soviet government.
[Peteograd, September 5, 1918]
