File No. 861.00/3167
The Chargé in Denmark (Grant-Smith) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 6, 9.27 a.m.]
3075. My 3038, October 28, 1 p.m.1 On the 29th ultimo, the British Charge d’Affaires left a memorandum with the Danish Government, on behalf of his Government, suggesting Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries should, in the event of the withdrawal of the Germans from Esthonia, Livonia, and Lithuania, render military assistance to the populations of these territories in defending themselves against the Bolsheviki and that failing this they [Page 844] should furnish them arms and ammunition which would be replaced by the Allies as soon as possible. It appears that neither proposal was received with enthusiasm.
On the second instant I was called upon by Gregory Kaplan, representative of the Ruthenian national Eada, Stanislas Khrzonstovski, mayor of Minsk, and Simon Rosenbaum, second mayor of Vilna, who asked for military aid to White Russia and yesterday dispatched a telegram to the President in that sense. These men had all arrived in Copenhagen from Russia via Berlin. In reply to my suggestion that their people should organize, they replied that such a step would only serve to draw down on the population and especially the Jews, the added vengeance of the Bolsheviki. I proposed also that they should endeavor to arrange with the Germans, before they retire, to leave sufficient arms and ammunition for their defense, a suggestion which has been also put forth by the British. This suggestion was likewise received with skepticism. Their general attitude was that the Associated Governments had created this new situation and were morally bound to remedy it with a minimum of inconvenience and loss to the populations of the territories in question. I stated my opinion that while some aid would probably be extended it was not likely to be other than in support of their own efforts.
Copy to London.
- Not printed.↩