File No. 763.72114/985
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Russia (Marye)
641. Your 360, November 23. Second and next to last sentences your telegram seem ambiguous and inconsistent with following statements in memorandum received from Russian Embassy, Washington, November 23:
The impossibility of allowing a unit not belonging to the Russian Sanitary Corps to take up permanent or prolonged work in the camps, and the divergence between its present aim and the conditions that had previously been agreed upon by diplomatic correspondence, obliged the War Office to permit the American Red Cross unit to act only according to the program that had originally been agreed upon—i. e., visits to the camps—and these visits have already begun. As to our financing the American Red Cross mission to Germany, the Imperial Government is obliged to express their regret that such a proposal can not be accepted, as it is in contradiction with the conditions that had been originally agreed upon. The Imperial Government highly appreciates the good and friendly intentions of the American Red Cross and the generous proposal of assigning $10,000 for the relief of Russian prisoners, but the present circumstances do not justify the necessity of accepting this generous offer.
Ascertain and inform Department exactly, attitude Russian Government as to removal from Russia both new Red Cross unit and also two Red Cross units already working in Russia. It would seem to be a reasonable conclusion from the memorandum of the Russian Ambassador that the American unit working in behalf of Russian prisoners in Germany must be withdrawn, and, while less definitely set out, that the Russian Government also desires the withdrawal of the American unit sent into Russia to visit German and Austrian prisoners of war. The Red Cross has decided to remove its unit from Germany.