File No. 861.00/3218
The Spanish Ambassador (Riaño) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 9.]
Mr. Secretary: By order of the Government of His Majesty, I have the honor to apply to your excellency and to inform you that the president of the Supreme Executive Council of “Letgalie” and the president of that district Diet have applied to His Majesty the King, my august sovereign, asking him kindly to use his good offices with the President of the United States to the end that he may bring his powerful influence to bear for the purpose of having the German troops continue to occupy those territories until order and justice are secure, and thus save the inhabitants from death and ruin, which would befall them if they were turned over to the Bolshevik violence, which exists in the districts Minsk and Vitebsk evacuated by the German troops. The Minister of Ukrainia in Berlin, and the representatives of other states which formerly belonged to the Russian [Page 845] Empire, have applied to the Ambassador of His Majesty bespeaking the intervention of his Government with the United States and the Entente powers, so that they may not insist upon the retirement of the German troops, which would mean total devastation to the territory and death to a large number of the inhabitants, pending the organization of other forces that may afford safety from the oppression of the Bolshevik terrorists. The Vice Consul of Spain in Esthonia has reported to His Majesty’s Government that the neutral consuls had a meeting and all agreed to apply to their respective chiefs and urge them to ask that the German troops should stay.
Prince Lubomirski also has laid before His Majesty the King, my august sovereign, a memorial praying for the organization in Poland of a neutral force to defend that country against the Bolshevists when the German troops are withdrawn.
Taking all these requests into consideration, His Majesty the King and the Spanish Government would fail in the imperative duty to humanity that they have assumed since the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, if they should fail to listen to the suggestions that have been made to them and did not intervene with the Government of the United States by making a statement of the facts above specified in the assurance that the President of the United States jointly with the Allied powers will appreciate them to their full value and decide in accordance with justice and the principles of humanity.
I avail myself [etc.]