760c.61/438

The Minister in Switzerland (Gary) to the Acting Secretary of State

No. 422

Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department that Mr. Jean Efremoff, Russian Minister in Switzerland, made extensive use recently in Geneva of the Note that Secretary Colby wrote to the Italian Ambassador in Washington last August, citing it to the delegations of the different countries assembled in Geneva for the sittings of the League of Nations as an expression of the principle which should be adopted by the Assembly in considering the applications submitted by the States bordering on Russia for admission to the League.

Mr. Efremoff in a recent letter to me states that in calling the attention of the delegations to the Note of Secretary Colby he informed them that in his opinion it was impossible to set forth in a clearer and more precise manner the rights and real interests of the Russian Nation, and he believes that the resolution of the Assembly of the League refusing to grant admission to the border states which were asking for a ratification of their separation from Russia was decisively influenced by the sound and powerful arguments of the American Note. He said he would like to express his gratitude and that of all patriotic Russians for the enduring service which this American Note has rendered in preventing the dismemberment of Russia.

I have [etc.]

Hampson Gary

[For information issued by the Department in support of its policy, see Memorandum on Certain Aspects of the Bolshevist Movement [Page 481] in Russia (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1919); The 2nd Congress of the Communist International as Reported and Interpreted by the Official Newspapers of Soviet Russia, Petrograd—Moscow, July 19–August 7, 1920 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1920); and Memorandum on the Bolshevist or Communist Party in Russia and its Relations to the Third or Communist International and to the Russian Soviets (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1920).]