File No. 861.00/2587
The Consul at Archangel (Cole) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 27.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that the Central Commissariat of Food Supply has telegraphed the Archangel Food Supply Committee (now called the Provincial Food Supply Commissariat) that it may make purchases abroad in its own name and for its own account because the continued interruption of transportation between European Russia and Siberia, due to the Czecho-Slovak movement and the military operations connected therewith, have made it impossible for Archangel to expect to be supplied with grain from the central distributing organ.
This is, at last, the clear permission to trade with abroad that Archangel moderates have been striving for since early spring. It is, however, at the present moment useless. No negotiations are possible on account of the political tension and the ban laid on telegrams to and from Europe.
The fact, however, that the central government has, so to speak, washed its hands of Archangel’s food supply for the coming winter, is significant and of utmost importance to the Allies since now, if Archangel starves, the fault therefore will be laid entirely at our [Page 500] door, most especially at the door of the British who have held a dominating position throughout all the negotiations with the local authorities—negotiations that have only resulted in exasperating the local Bolsheviks, putting the harbor into a state of defense under orders of the central government, losing to the Allies the entire quantity of war stores, metals, and merchandise that lay here throughout the winter and that could have been exchanged for food products, and which have undoubtedly had a most deplorable effect on the course of the politics maintained by the central Soviet government at Moscow, as every check or mistaken move in the policy maintained by England in the north has had as its result a strengthening of the hold established by the Moscow Soviet government on Archangel, and an increased anti-Ally attitude on the part of the Archangel authorities delegated here from Moscow.
If, however, the anticipated British occupation of this city does not occur, I believe that the United States, by taking up the opportunity offered by the present free hand given the local food commissariat, could reach a working agreement with it that would eventually enable the Allies to maintain armed force here to form a rallying point for the scattered and weak Russian spirits that may still rally for a struggle against Germany. Such a peaceful creation of a “nucleus” or “rallying point” would have a much more far-reaching effect throughout the mass of the Russian populace than the forcible establishment of such a “nucleus” by an occupationary or expeditionary force can possibly have.
I have [etc.]