File No. 861.51/314
The Chargé in Denmark (Grant-Smith) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10.49 p.m.]
2256. The following appears in to-day’s Copenhagen newspapers:
The Bolshevik representative of the Russian Government, M. Vorovski, has made the following declaration through the Ritzau [Reuter?] Bureau:
We hereby give notification to commercial houses and to private persons who have deposits in Russia that these deposits are perfectly secure and run no risk whatever of being confiscated in whole in part. We notify therefore the persons or firms in question not to withdraw their money by checks at a discount by which speculators are ready to profit.
The Russian Government is now making every effort to [take measures?] in order that these persons of Russian nationality now resident in Denmark should receive, through the intermediary of Danish banks, the sums necessary for their living expenses. This will be arranged within a short time and the public will be informed thereof through the press.
V. Vorovski
Copenhagen, May 8, 1918.
The foregoing is evidently the outcome of a number of Russian bankers who recently arrived in Copenhagen and a member of the German Reichsbank. Apparently this is another German move towards securing control of Russia, not only of the financial institutions but likewise of commercial houses and particularly of individuals, the majority of whom are nearing the end of their resources and through this maneuver become directly dependent upon the German Government.