861.48/1587

The Secretary of State to Diplomatic and Consular Officers

Diplomatic serial
No. 58

Gentlemen: You are informed that the following named American organizations

  • The American Relief Administration
  • American Friends Service Committee
  • American Red Cross
  • Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America
  • Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
  • Knights of Columbus
  • Young Men’s Christian Association
  • Young Women’s Christian Association
  • The Catholic Welfare Committee

comprising the so-called European Relief Council have agreed upon a common policy with regard to relief work in Russia which in brief is as follows:

(1)
That the Director of the American Relief Administration in Russia shall appoint on his staff at headquarters one or more representatives (to be mutually agreed upon) of any of the organization members of the European Relief Council which may be represented in Russia;
(2)
Each organization represented in Russia will conduct all its relations with the central Soviet authorities through or with the approval of the American Relief Administration in Russia;
(3)
The Director of the American Relief Administration in Russia will have control over the personnel of all organizations represented in Russia;
(4)
The organizations in the United States shall be individually guided by their own views as to the collection of funds;
(5)
The American Friends Service Committee will be assigned by the Director of the American Relief Administration in Russia a definite district or area of distribution in which the former shall keep its own identity but under the supervision of the latter.

Colonel William N. Haskell has been appointed Director of the American Relief Administration in Russia.

The Government of the United States has no official connection with this relief work, and representatives of the several organizations mentioned are in no sense representatives of this Government.

I am [etc.]

For the Secretary of State:
Fred M. Dearing