868.51 Refugee Settlement Commission/22
The Ambassador in France ( Herrick ) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 18.]
Sir: In accordance with your instructions, I handed yesterday to the Foreign Office a copy of your note of March 31st relative to relief work in the Near East.13
I expressed to M. de Peretti the deep interest of our Government in this problem and your desire to cooperate in reaching an adequate solution. M. de Peretti replied that the French Government was also greatly interested, but did not see what could be done; the French Government had already spent a great deal of money and was unable to spend any more under present financial conditions. He said that they had sent large numbers of these refugees to Syria and they were already as heavy a burden as the Syrian Budget could bear. He added that the Mediterranean littoral was saturated with refugees and that the efforts that have been made by the French to send some Russians to Brazil had not been very successful.
From the general tone of his remarks, I should judge that any initiative in this matter will have to be taken by our Government; at any rate so far as the French are concerned.
I have [etc.]
Counselor of Embassy