File No. 861.00/1990
I am also sending you enclosed a photostat copy of a statement on the
subject handed me by Baron Maydell.
[Enclosure]
The Secretary of Commerce (Redfield) to the President
Washington, June 8, 1918.
My Dear Mr. President: Information
which we have been gathering concerning Russia from many sources
points unanimously to the opportunity and to the obligation to
make our influence felt through commercial lines in helpfulness
to the Russian people. Our facts come, not only from our own
permanent and traveling men in Russia and Siberia and through
the Department of State, but from personal contact with
Russians, with Americans long residents of Russia, and with
Americans who have for many years carried on business in Russia.
Many of these men have been long personally known to me. The
general opinion deprecates military action but urges commercial
action.
Confidentially but indirectly we learn that some plan has been
suggested to you through the Department of State. Of its details
we are not informed. I write simply to say that we are ready to
act and we believe we understand what the situation requires. A
considerable sum would be required but I can put no estimate
upon it without knowing to what extent plans of the kind may
have matured in your own mind and that of the Secretary of
State. Of course our desire is to cooperate in the fullest way
with the Department of State should our cooperation be
desired.
I write, however, lest amid the urgent pressure brought from what
seem to me authoritative sources for commercial action, I should
be deemed negligent if I failed to put the matter definitely
before you.
Yours very truly,
[File copy not signed]
[Subenclosure]
Baron
Maydell to the Secretary of Commerce
(Redfield)
The only intervention which is advisable and possible to-day in
Russia is a peaceful intervention starting a trading
organization on a large basis on the Pacific Coast. That is the
only part of Russia in which American trade is possible to-day
after Germany has succeeded in creating on the whole west and
north of European Russia half independent strategical states,
which are more or less pro-German.
The Russian peasant, who hates political patronage as much as he
dislikes any kind of charity, is not a bad business man and
needs urgently all kinds of goods which Germany is promising but
not able to furnish. The Russian peasant of to-day has not only
money but also raw material like wool, skins, etc., which he
would be glad to exchange against all kinds of agricultural
machinery, tools, boots, and clothing. These goods should be
shipped immediately to the Pacific ports and could be stored in
Nikolaev, Vladivostok, Dalny [Dairen], and Harbin. From Nikolaev
goods could be easily shipped on the Amur River and exchanged in
the wealthy agricultural district inhabited by Cossack peasants.
From the other above-mentioned places, the goods would penetrate
into eastern Siberia by rail. They could be sold through small
local agents, who are already to-day selling such kinds of goods
for enormous prices on account of the insufficient stocks
obtainable there.
The exchange of goods could be done without any loss for American
firms and under such favorable conditions as the population has
not seen for a long period. That would be the first step for the
best and soundest propaganda for America, proving that there is
a nation who can furnish under acceptable conditions the goods
so bitterly needed for the existence of the population without
interfering in internal politics or brutal exploitation like
Germany is doing in European Russia.
If this business would be properly started and carried out on a
large basis, it is more than probable that in a short time
further districts would come and ask for the same assistance,
offering their goods in exchange.
If it would appear that the railroad system would be too
disorganized for carrying out this problem, the population would
naturally ask Americans for help and reorganization. The
population feeling that this is the beginning of a sound and
permanent relationship, would be interested itself in
guaranteeing safety for the Americans and their goods. But, of
course those firms who are starting this business would like to
have the guaranty of the Government of the United States that
they would have not only the full assistance of their consular
officers but that armed forces could be available for defending
their stores in the ports against robbery or confiscation by
agents of the Bolshevik government in Moscow, which may be tried
under the influence of the German Embassy at Moscow.
It would be necessary to sell these goods directly to peasants
and their associations and not to big speculators who probably
would try to get hold of stocks considerable enough to use them
for politics, or big commercial profits. It would be necessary
to prevent from the first beginning that not only those big
American firms wouldn’t be mixed into interior politics, but
that also the distribution of the goods through the
intermediates couldn’t be used for political reasons.
It is necessary to point out that the Russian revolution, which
is the biggest revolution that has ever been, is only at its
beginning and that the solution of
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the agrarian problems can be carried out
only in a certain number of years. But, whatever the political
passions may be and how bloody and brutal the outside may be,
the interior life of the country must go on somehow and the
needs for different things is much bigger in such a time of
great trouble and stress. And the nation who in such time was a
real unselfish friend, assisting the population in procuring the
things needed and not asking any political compensation or
rights, will be the nation which will be naturally bound
together for future real political life when one day a central
government will be created.
