661.0031/orig.: Telegram
The Ambassador in France ( Wallace ) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 16, 1920—8:30 p.m.]
For Emery:82
Please release immediately to press following official communiqué of Supreme Council January 16th:
“With a view to remedying the unhappy situation of the population of the interior of Russia, which is now deprived of all manufactured products from outside Russia, the Supreme Council, after having taken note of the report of a committee appointed to consider the reopening of certain trading relations with the Russian people, has decided that it would permit the exchange of goods on the basis of reciprocity between the Russian people [and] Allied and neutral countries. For this purpose it decided to give facilities to the Russian cooperative organizations which are in direct touch with the peasantry throughout Russia so that they may arrange for the import into Russia of clothing, medicines, agricultural machinery and the other necessaries of which the Russian people are in sore need in exchange for grain, flax, etc., of which Russia has surplus supplies. These arrangements imply no change in the policy of the Allied Governments towards the Soviet Government.[”]
- Frederick A. Emery, of the Division of Foreign Intelligence, Department of State.↩