Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Russia, Volume III

File No. 861.51/423

The Russian Ambassador ( Bakhmeteff ) to the Secretary of State

Washington , November 30, 1918 .
[Received December 2.]

My Dear Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to transmit to you copy of cable received by the Russian Embassy from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Omsk which confirms the Omsk government’s responsibility for all liabilities of the Russian state treasury.

I avail [etc.]

B. Bakhmeteff

[Enclosure—Paraphrase]

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Omsk to the Russian Embassy

Undated .
[Received November 29, 1918.]

Kindly bring to the knowledge of the United States Government that the government which is headed by Admiral Kolchak as its supreme chief,¹ bearing in mind that Russia had always sacredly executed all liabilities towards its own subjects as well as towards nations with which it is bound by treaties, deems it necessary to state in the declaration of November 21, that it under takes to fulfil, as soon as united Russia is reconstructed, all the liabilities of the state treasury, i. e., payment of interest and amortization on interior and exterior state loans, payments on contracts, salaries of employees, pensions and all other legal foundations. The government at the same time, declares all financial acts of the Soviet powers as acts published by mutineers as illegal and not liable to execution.

1. See vol. ii, p. 435.