File No. 872.51/53

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France ( Sharp)

[Telegram]

2880. For Crosby1 [from Leffingwell2]:

Treasury No. 13. The British Ambassador at Washington has made the following communication to the State Department:

The British Government is informed that the United States authorities have supplied to the Serbian Government the sum of $1,000,000 to be specially employed for the relief of the following categories of Serbians in Serbia and enemy countries:

(a)
War invalids—i. e., incapacitated by wounds or illness—and their families;
(b)
Indigent families of mobilized men;
(c)
Members of liberal professions, commercial men, artisans, etc., who are without any means of sustenance;
(d)
Persons interned.

It is understood that the American authorities are also considering the allocation of a further $1,000,000 to be employed by the American Red Cross for the assistance of the Serbian prisoners of war and purchases of sanitary material.

The question of supplying relief on the above lines has been under consideration by the British authorities on various occasions during the past two years and the following information on the subject may be of interest to the United States Government at the present moment:

Payments to war invalids are, it is presumed, already included in the payments made by the Serbian Government to Serbian officers and men. The funds out of which these payments are made are supplied by the French and British Governments jointly. The payments (items b, c, and d) being made to persons in territory occupied by the enemy have not been agreed to hitherto by the British Government in spite of repeated applications by the Serbian Government, as there was no guarantee that the benefits of these payments would not accrue almost entirely to the enemy. It is possible, however, that certain payments for persons interned and for various indigent families and persons in occupied territory may have been made by the Serbian Relief Fund under guarantees as to the proper distribution of the supplies.

With regard to assistance to Serbian prisoners of war, arrangements are at present under discussion between the French and British Governments in which it has been contemplated that practically the whole cost for the relief to Serbian prisoners of war should be undertaken by those two Governments. These arrangements provide for [Page 602] the centralization of the whole work of relief under the auspices of the Serbian Relief Fund, and the estimates of the cost are being prepared on the basis of information supplied by that body and from other sources.

With regard to purchases of sanitary material it may be observed that as the whole of the requirements of the Serbian Government for all purposes are at present provided by the French and British Governments jointly, it is not clear to what this can refer unless it should be to purchases of material for use after the war. The British Treasury have been approached repeatedly by the Serbian Government with a view to purchases of sanitary and other material for after-the-war purposes, but they have always maintained that they are unable at the present time to provide funds for any other purpose than the prosecution of the war. They have, however, consented to the appointment of an interdepartmental committee to consider the conditions on which it might eventually be possible to agree to certain purchases for reconstruction purposes, but it had been intended to obtain the consent of the French and Russian Governments before any definite steps were taken.

In communicating the above facts the British Ambassador is instructed to state that the British Government will be glad to supply more detailed information in regard to the assistance given to the Serbian Government, should the Government of the United States so desire. At the same time it would be convenient if the British authorities could be furnished with further details of the policy of the United States Government in these matters in order that any necessary modifications may be made in the arrangements heretofore adopted. In particular the British Treasury would be grateful for information as to the financial aid which the United States Government may contemplate rendering (a) to Serbian subjects in occupied territory and (b) to the Serbian Government, during the war, for the purposes of reconstruction of Serbian territory after the war or when it may be liberated.

Please consult with representatives of French and British Governments and advise further as to loan of $5,000,000 now asked by Serbia to be expended partly through American Red Cross. Leffingwell.

Lansing
  1. Oscar T. Crosby; in Europe from November, 1917, as American delegate to the Inter-Allied Council on War Purchases and Finance.
  2. R. C. Leffingwell, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.