861.00/5308: Telegram
The Commission to Negotiate Peace to the Secretary of State
[Received September 30, 10:04 p.m.]
4436. Sazonoff52 saw me and left the following aide-mémoire:
“The latest information that has reached the Russian Embassy in Paris refers again to the possibility of the fall of Petrograd in a short time. But on the other hand the same source of information is very alarming about the food situation. In fact all military operations might be stopped by the lack of food supplies for the famine-stricken population of Petrograd. The food stocks imported by the Hoover organization [to relieve the population of] Petrograd are nearly exhausted; what remains is hardly sufficient for two weeks. There is no hope of obtaining the necessary food from the Baltic Provinces as these provinces have no more supplies than they themselves need. Therefore it is most urgent that at least 30,000 tons of food supplies be held ready for the immediate use of the Petrograd population. The Russian Government hopes that the United States Government will not refuse to undertake this humanitarian task. The Russian Government is ready to assume responsibility for the expense entailed.”
I told him that I would forward it to the Department but that I did not see the pressing necessity of supplying food on the chance that Petrograd might be taken. I also pointed out that there would be serious difficulties in connection with our Government financing any such plan.
- S. D. Sazonov, Minister for Foreign Affairs for the South Russian and for the Omsk Governments.↩