861.48/1476
The Chairman of the American Relief Administration (Hoover) to the Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Secretary: You will recollect my conversation of about six weeks ago in which I raised the desirability of extending relief to children and medical relief in Bolshevik Russia. Since that time the food situation has become more difficult, typhus is wider-spread. You may have also noticed the appeals being sent out by prominent Russians including Maxim Gorky for help and the curious statements of the Bolshevik government giving these appeals the color of being unauthorized but that the world is wicked in refusing them. Despite this foolishness, I feel very deeply that we should go to the assistance of the children and also provide some medical relief generally.
I would like to suggest, therefore, to you that as the head of the American Relief Administration I send an offer to Gorky by cable of which I enclose a draft.20
I believe it is a humane obligation upon us to go in if they comply with the requirements set out; if they do not acceed we are relieved from responsibility.
Yours faithfully,
- Not found in Department files; see the letter from the Assistant Director, American Relief Administration, to the Chief of the Division of Russian Affairs, July 23, and its enclosure infra.↩