File No. 861.00/3218
The Acting Secretary of State to the Spanish Ambassador (Riaño)
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s letter informing me that the president of the Supreme Council of “Letgalie,” and the president of the district Diet have applied to His Majesty the King of Spain, requesting that he use his good offices with the President of the United States to the end that German troops be allowed to continue in those territories which they have formerly occupied in Russia in order that the inhabitants of those districts may not be submitted to violations and reprisals at the hands of the Bolsheviks.
You further state that the Minister of the Ukraine and other states formerly comprised within the Russian Empire, have made like representations to His Majesty.
As your excellency is aware, by the terms of the armistice recently concluded between the Associated Governments and Germany, it was stipulated that—
All German troops at present in the territories which before the war belonged to Russia shall likewise withdraw within the frontiers of Germany as defined above, as soon as the Allies taking into account the internal situation of those territories shall decide that the time for this has come.
In the meantime this Government is seeking to reach a solution by which order and control may be established within those districts, following the withdrawal of the German troops.
Accept [etc.]