861.48/1337
The French Ambassador (Jusserand) to the Acting Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary of State: The French Government alone has up to the present assured the cost of the support of the 135,000 Russians which were evacuated from the Crimea upon the occupation of that peninsula by the Bolsheviks. It has been a very heavy charge, and under present conditions the French Treasury cannot meet it beyond the first of next January.
Therefore the French Government must on that date leave the task of providing for the needs of the refugees to the General Association for Russian Relief, which was organized for that purpose in Paris.
This association is even now endeavoring to collect the considerable sums which it will require, and to that end it has applied to the Government of the United States and to the Belgian Government, as well as to the charitable organizations of the world.
It is also seeking to realize upon the assets of the former Wrangel government, as also upon the credits placed at its disposal by various Russian societies.
Among these appears a claim of the Russian Volunteer Fleet against the American Government, which is estimated at one million four hundred thousand dollars, and which the Administrative Council of this society has pledged itself to turn over to the above-mentioned Association for the support of the refugees.
Your Excellency will perceive the interest which the Government of the Republic would take in seeing this credit liquidated as soon as possible and the sum due the Russian Volunteer Fleet put speedily at the disposal of the Russian Association. It would, indeed, give the Association an effective means for supplementing the financial assistance from France, which cannot in any case be prolonged. It would enable it besides to come to the aid of sufferers who may for a long time to come find themselves in extreme destitution.
[Page 639]The President of the Council and Minister for Foreign Affairs has instructed me, and I have the honor to request Your Excellency to be so good as to use your good offices with the competent Federal authorities, so that the financial settlement of this matter may be expedited in every possible way, and that the total amount of the credit due the Russian Volunteer Fleet may be put speedily at the disposal of the General Association for Russian Relief to be applied to the support of the refugees from Crimea.
Accept [etc.]