861.00/7359: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the High Commissioner at Constantinople (Bristol)
58. For Admiral McCully.
Department has received information that a statement, which it is inclined to discredit, has been made by several Russian sources here, in Paris, and in London, that you have informed Mr. Bernatski, General Wrangel’s Minister of Finance, that the United States is willing to give economic aid to his government and you have asked him for a list of the supplies which are needed for the Crimea. This rumor is causing considerable embarrassment and the Secretary of State has said to the American Press: “There is nothing to that report and no foundation for it.”
Please investigate the source of this rumor and inform Department immediately.