File No. 860d1.48/27
The Finnish Commissioner ( Ignatius)2 to the Secretary of State
[Received December 10.]
Sir: In behalf of the Finnish Government, whose representative I am, I beg leave to direct the attention of the Department of State to certain facts relating to the food situation in Finland and to ask your cooperation in relieving the critical condition of the Finnish people. As the Government of the United States is undoubtedly aware, the conditions in Finland are appalling. Starvation and death threaten a large part of the population. It is essential that they should obtain flour from the United States. In the present condition of affairs in Russia, it is utterly impossible to obtain food supplies from that country. The sufferings already endured by the people of Finland have been heartrending. Finland does not produce enough food for its own support, but is dependent upon foreign countries for a large part of its supplies of grain. Before the war, it raised about 360,000 tons of breadstuffs and imported about 400,000 tons, of which 50,000 came from the United States, the remainder from Russia. With the war, the importations from America ceased and the disorganization of Russia has caused a cessation of imports from that country. Owing to frosts last July and drouths, the crop of 1917 was only about 200,000 tons, instead of 350,000 to 360,000, as in normal times.
In May, 1917, foreseeing the inevitable shortage in Russia, the Finnish Government, through Messrs. W. R. Grace & Co., New York, and their representative in Stockholm, arranged for the purchase of 50,000 tons of wheat flour in America. This flour has [Page 573] been bought and paid for by the Finnish Government through a credit opened with the National City Bank. A considerable portion of it is already in warehouses in Baltimore and New York. Some is in cars en route from the mills to the warehouses. Part of it is still at the mills.
As soon as the purchase was arranged for the Finnish Government applied to the Inter-Allied Supply Committee in Petrograd for licenses to import the flour. This Committee is made up of representatives of all the Allied countries, including the United States, and is presided over by the Russian General Michelson. The Committee suggested that sufficient rye flour might be purchased in Russia and accordingly licenses for importation from the United States were not granted at that time. The Finnish Government made every effort to obtain flour in Russia and paid in advance 60,000,000 Finnish marks to the Russian Government for rye flour, which was to be delivered in Finland in August and the beginning of September.
As no flour reached Finland from Russia in August or the early part of September and as the Finnish crop was seen to be a complete failure owing to frosts and drouth, the Finnish Government again pressed the Inter-Allied Supply Committee for relief and about the middle of September that Committee granted an import license for 60,000 tons of wheat flour from America.
Three Swedish steamers were chartered through Grace & Co. for account of the Finnish Government to begin the transportation of flour from America. In the latter part of September, 1917, Messrs. Grace & Co. applied in Washington for export licenses and letters of assurance covering two cargoes of the flour to be shipped on the Swedish steamers Emanuel and Pacific, but the application was unsuccessful.
In order to avoid the possibility of any portion of the flour falling into the hands of the enemy, the Finnish Government arranged with the Swedish Government for transit licenses for the flour and arranged that the flour should be transported to Narvik, Norway, thence by rail to Karunki, Sweden, which is on the Finnish border, there to remain under American control—weekly rations to be released to Finland.
Under date of October 6, 1917, the United States Food Administration, Milling Division, requested Messrs. Grace & Co. to discontinue purchases of flour under “Finnish orders” on the ground that further purchases at that time would “mean that millers would be putting on their books or in transit a quantity of flour which, if it was not cleared, would merely cause confusion and congestion.” At that time approximately 3,250 tons of flour was in warehouses in Baltimore, 11,940 tons in New York warehouses and 29,878 tons was [Page 574] to arrive—11,847 consigned to Baltimore and 18,031 consigned to New York. Messrs. Grace & Co., of course, complied with this request.
On October 27, 1917, Messrs. Grace & Co. were notified that the flour in the warehouses of New York Dock Co. in New York and the Canton Co. in Baltimore had been requisitioned by the U. S. Food Administrator and on November 30, 1917, Messrs. Grace & Co. were similarly notified that the flour in the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Warehouse at North 10th Street, Brooklyn, had been requisitioned.
If sufficient flour is released by the United States to relieve the immediate and absolute necessities of the Finnish people, there is not the slightest possibility that any portion of this flour will reach the enemy. The arrangement with Sweden insures the delivery of the flour by a northern route without risk of capture by the Central Powers.
I respectfully request that the State Department take such action as may be proper to secure the release of a sufficient quantity of the flour owned by the Finnish Government to relieve the immediate necessities of the Finnish people.
I am [etc.]
- According to a telegram of Sept. 29, 1917, from the Minister in Sweden: “Finnish Senate with the approval of the Russian Government has appointed Doctor Ignatius to go to America to negotiate for the exportation 60,000 tons flour for Finland.” (File No. 860d.48/40.)↩