Paris Peace Conference 861.00/161: Telegram
The Chargé in Denmark (Osborne) to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
[Received in Paris January 25, 11:40 p.m.]
131. Following is substance of letter dated January 22nd, received for Buckler from Litvinoff after former’s departure: Hope expressed that Buckler’s detailed report will be very soon laid before the President; meanwhile Noulens35 and Scavenius,35 two of the most prejudiced and bitter enemies of the Soviets, will have been heard by the Paris Conference. A new note from Tchitcherine cabled to Washington last Saturday36 was, Litvinoff believes, superfluous in view of his conversations with Buckler.
Doctor Davidson, believing that it would help to solve the Russian problem, had come with the proposal to allow a Red Cross mission to distribute food to the Bourgeois, fourth group of citizens in Petrograd. Litvinoff cannot see how any problem can be solved through feeding a few hundred people while millions starve.
Doctor Davidson intimates that Americans consequential [consider?] unequal rationing by groups very unjust. Litvinoff assured him that this system did not aim at punishing certain sections of the population to the advantage of the other side, but as there is not enough food to supply all sufficiently, it is necessary to give some preference to producers of goods. The insufficient supply of foodstuffs is due to Allied policy, which through its support of Koltchak, Denikin, Krasnoff, et al., has cut off Siberia, the rich harvest district, and other important sources of supply; the Soviet régime is not to blame. Productiveness of the land has largely decreased on account of the absence of agricultural implements, scarcity of these and other badly needed commodities renders it impossible to give anything in exchange to the peasants who still have untouched supplies of cereals with which they consequently refuse to part. The Allied blockade and the opposition of Finland have rendered impossible the export from Sweden of large quantities of agricultural implements and other tools purchased by the Soviet Government to meet the situation. British naval forces recently captured near Reval and took to British ports four Russian steamships laden with timber and flax which had been sent to Sweden by the Russian Government to pay for goods purchased in Sweden. By direct or indirect Allied pressure, Denmark has been induced to prevent the export of some 30,000,000 roubles worth of vegetable seeds paid for in cash. In [Page 34] consequence, Russia next summer will be without vegetables, beet roots and sugar. Above few examples could be multiplied ad infinitum; there are sufficient indications of how the defects and “injustices” of the system, likewise the sufferings of Russia’s whole population, are inextricably connected with the blockade and Allied intervention. It is hoped that these facts may be laid before the President and others, who may be complaining of the “character of” state of Russian affairs. It is feared that a decision may have been reached before Buckler’s arrival in Paris.
Another short letter of same date, written subsequently states, “what has also been reported in the press”, that Litvinoff must leave with Bolshevik legation on the 25th, thanks to Allied pressure; if Litvinoff is allowed to go to Christiania his address will be care of Lawyer Ludwig Meyer.