661.1115/162
The Secretary of State to the Secretary of War (Baker)12
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the letter, dated July 13, 1920,13 addressed to Mr. Maitland Dwight of this Department by Major Victor E. Ruehl, Chief of the Contract Section, Office of the Director of Sales, in which it is requested that the Department of State inform the Office of the Director of Sales of the War Department as to whether or not the State Department has any objections to the extension for a period of one year from June 30, 1920, of the War Department contracts with the two Russian and Siberian cooperative societies, namely, The All-Russian Central Union of Consumers’ Societies and the Union of Siberian Co-operative [Page 720] Unions, dated June 20, 1919, which by the terms thereof were to continue in force for one year and to be subject to renewal.
In reply I have the honor to inform you that this Department has carefully considered the matter and is of the opinion that it is not advisable at the present time to renew the contracts in question. Although the contracts specify the right of the War Department to designate the areas in which the distribution of commodities may be made, the territory under the control of the anti-bolshevist factions of Russia is now practically negligible. Furthermore, your attention is invited to the fact that the managing directors of the cooperative societies in question have been changed by the action of the faction in control of Soviet Russia. The representative of the All-Russian Central Union of Consumers’ Societies is Mr. Gregory Krassin, an executive official of the Soviet Central Council. The elected Directorate of the All-Russian Central Union of Consumers’ Societies in Moscow and the foreign Directorate under Mr. Alexander Berkenheim have been declared removed by the Soviet authorities. Hence these cooperative societies must, for the present at least, be considered a part of the machinery of Soviet Russia.
[I have the honor to add, however, that it is hoped that the failure to renew the contracts at the present time will not prevent the War Department from considering their renewal at a future date in case the conditions mentioned above have been modified. It is, moreover, the desire of this Department that the contact with the Russian cooperative societies should be maintained in such a manner that future business relations with them may be resumed immediately if circumstances become favorable for such action.]
I have [etc.]
Under Secretary
- Attached to file is a memorandum of the Foreign Trade Adviser, dated July 28, 1920, which states: “In accordance with instructions received from Mr. Merle-Smith and from Mr. Adee’s Office, I telephoned Major Ruehl, of the Director of Sales Office, of the War Department, and conveyed to him orally the substance of the last paragraph which was omitted from the letter of July 27th, addressed to the Secretary of War, on the subject of the renewal of certain contracts with Cooperative Societies.”↩
- Not printed.↩