File No. 811.142/7048
The Chargé in Sweden (Whitehouse) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 30, 10.18 a.m.]
3059. Your 1230, October 22, 4 p.m. Have consulted Wardwell2 who states that it is impossible to do anything in Russia without dealing with the Bolshevik authorities. While relief might be carried on through the Russian Red Cross, the head of that organization is Sverdlov, whose brother is the head of the executive committee of the Soviet. Wardwell and Webster are willing to return to Russia and continue Red Cross work if the Department considers that such work would be consistent with our policy in view of the presence of American troops at Archangel and in Siberia.
While the Bolsheviks are naturally anxious to obtain relief supplies it would seem that a continuance of relief work with the presence in their territory of semiofficial Americans might induce the Bolsheviks to think that we do not intend to move against them and might discourage that part of the population which is anxiously hoping for us to drive out the Bolsheviks.
- Maj. Allen Wardwell, in charge of the American Red Cross Commission to Russia.↩