861.00/7895: Telegram
The High Commissioner at Constantinople (Bristol) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received December 29—11:55 a.m.]
654. From Imbrie:40
“1. 27th. General Wrangel informs me that the Russian Fleet taken over by the French and consisting of the Black Sea Fleet and a number of commercial vessels is now to be sold by the French over his, Wrangel’s, protest the money accruing to be used by the French as partial reimbursement for the expenses advanced for the Crimean campaign; that this action of the French is contrary to the original undertaking between Wrangel and the French; that the French state that they are unable to give the financial support necessary to the preservation of Wrangel’s army as a unit and that unless other support is forthcoming that army, the only army in the field capable of opposing the Bolsheviks, will be demobilized; that the French have already deprived the army of its arms; that it is his, Wrangel’s, opinion that in the event of the coming into power in Russia of a White government such government would not consider itself bound by any treaties entered into by the Bolsheviks nor would it be bound by any commercial concessions made during the Bolsheviks regime; that it is his belief that any financial advantage accruing to those trading with the Bolsheviks will be shortlived since the Bolsheviks have but a small gold reserve. There are few supplies or materials in the ports for export and the transport within the country is incapable of moving material in any commercial quantities: that the temporary advantage of trade with the Soviet Government would be more than discounted by the odium attendant upon receiving stolen goods.
Wrangel states his belief that no relief work should be conducted by outside organizations within Soviet Russia as an attempt at such [Page 640] relief will merely result in the strengthening of the power of the Soviet since relief supplies would necessarily be distributed through Soviet officials, would be received only by Communists, and would never reach the people for whom they were intended or by whom they were most needed. It is Wrangel’s opinion that the Bolsheviks will shortly annex Georgia.
Wrangel desires his thanks extended to the American people for their aid to the refugees and states that America’s help has been greater than that of any other nation. He appeals to our Government or to American relief organizations to undertake the evacuation of his forces and the refugees here amounting to about 140,000 in all to Vladivostok, the army to be sent not as a fighting force since this would involve political questions but as immigrants. What answer if any am I authorized to make to this appeal?
I gather not from any specific statement made by Wrangel but from the general tenor of the interview that his relations with the French are no longer cordial.”
- Robert W. Imbrie, vice consul at Constantinople.↩