311.6124/14: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Commissioner at Helsingfors (Haynes)
Your 518, January 9, 8 p.m. Buford ordered diverted from Libau to Hangö and should probably arrive about the 13th. Ship must be met by a competent representative of your office. F. N. Berkshire, Immigration Inspector in charge for the Department of Labor, has been instructed to be guided entirely by the arrangements which you make. You are authorized, in order to provide the necessary funds, to draw on the Secretary of State, advising dates and amounts of drafts immediately by cable.
It is considered desirable, if convenient, for one or more Department of Labor representatives to accompany aliens to Russian border.
If certain of the deported aliens desire to execute Powers of Attorney or other documents relating to the disposition of their property in this country, and this can be done conveniently, there is no objection provided the documents are executed before an American official. The last preceding clause is important.
[Page 695]With respect to public opinion in Finland, it is the view of this Government that the aliens in question having abused the hospitality of the United States should be deported to their homes and that the only humane course is to send them to the portions of Russia controlled by the Bolsheviki but that the Bolshevik strength will probably not be materially increased thereby, because, while some of these people are Bolshevik sympathizers they are in large part temperamental discontents who will be troublesome wherever they are.
You will express to the Finnish Government the appreciation of this Government for its cooperation.