760C.61/428
The French Chargé (Beam) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary of State: The President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs, having taken cognizance of the note relative to Russia addressed by His Excellency the Secretary of State to His Excellency the Ambassador of Italy, has charged me to inform Your Excellency that he states with satisfaction that the Government of the Republic is in entire agreement with the Federal Government as regards the principles formulated in this document. The Government of the Republic is of the same opinion as the Federal Government concerning the present rulers of Russia. As Your Excellency himself expressed it, they are not in power by the will or the consent of a considerable portion of the Russian people but represent a small minority of the nation. They have seized power by force and by trickery; during the two and a half years that they have retained power, meanwhile subjecting the country to savage oppression, they have not yet authorized popular elections; on the contrary, they have put obstacles in the way of the creation of a popular representative government based on universal suffrage. Events have proven that the present system of government in Russia is founded on the denial of every principle of honor and good faith and of all the usages and conventions which are the basis of relations between nations and individuals. The responsible heads of this regime have frequently and openly boasted of being ready to sign agreements and contracts with foreign powers without having the least intention of observing them. They claim that no contract or agreement concluded with non-Bolshevist governments can bind them morally. After having proclaimed this doctrine they have applied it. They have declared they would foment revolutionary movements in other countries by all possible means, in order to establish there a Bolshevist regime. Furthermore, they recognize that they are themselves subject to the control of a political faction [Page 470] having international ramifications, and they have boasted that their promises of non-intervention in other countries would in no case be binding on the agents of this organization.
All these estimates of the American Government are absolutely true. In consequence, the Federal Government considers it impossible to recognize the present masters of Russia as a government with which the relations common to friendly governments can be maintained.
The Government of the Republic has reached the same conclusion. It cannot have official relations with a government which is resolved to conspire against its institutions; whose diplomats would be instigators of revolt; and whose orators proclaim that they will sign contracts with the intention not to observe them.
In complete accord with the Federal Government, the French Government believes in the necessity for an independent Polish State, and the French people, like the American people, ardently desires the maintenance of the political independence and the territorial integrity of Poland. This is why the French Government is in accord with the American Government to encourage all efforts made with a view to bringing about an armistice between Poland and Russia, while endeavoring to avoid creating the belief that the negotiations will result in the recognition of the Bolshevist regime and the dismemberment of Russia.
The Federal Government, as the interpreter of the feelings of the American people, desires to help the Russian people in whose future the United States retains an unshaken faith. The Government of the Republic associates itself unreservedly with this declaration. The French Government has never altered in its determination to uphold the principles so clearly formulated by the United States. It is in this spirit that it has decided to approve the armistice conditions offered to Poland only if they are in conformity with these principles.
It is in this spirit also that, after mature examination, it has in fact recognized a Russian Government which declares that it accepts the same principles.18
In informing Your Excellency of the reception which the declarations of the American Government have met with on the part of the French Government, I am instructed by M. Millerand to notify you that the French Government is happy to give this one further assurance of the close harmony of feeling which animates the French and American peoples when the future of civilization is at stake.
Accept [etc.]