763.72119/11446: Telegram-
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Harvey) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 23—7:25 p.m.]
700. Your 493, August 22, 1 p.m.26 Following resolution adopted at meeting Supreme Council August 13th:
“That the commission for the relief of famine in Russia should consist of three representatives of each of the powers represented at the conference; that the representatives should be appointed immediately; that the commission should sit in Paris as soon as possible and that it should have power to add to its numbers by selecting representatives of states adjacent to Russia and of other interested states, and should also determine with what philanthropic and other organizations working for the same purpose it should cooperate.”
Foreign Office has approached me informally with desire to know whether United States will send representatives to this meeting and who such representatives would be. Have informed them informally that this Embassy was without information on the subject. Foreign Office expresses informally earnest desire that United States be represented; states that while it is impossible to outline total proposed scope of action of commission that their view is that preliminary meetings would be entirely devoted to investigation and that the hope was to send investigators to Russia to report, and that United States might be represented among such investigators. Foreign Office feels that multiplicity of private charitable organizations in Great Britain makes official British action important. English delegates to commission are Sir Philip Lloyd Greame, parliamentary secretary to Board of Trade, Sir John Hewett, member of Indian plague commission in 1898, and Mr. Oliver Wardrop, Chief British Commissioner in Transcaucasia. Understood that Belgian delegation already appointed but that French members not yet certain.
- Not printed.↩