860P.00/284: Telegram
The Minister in Latvia (Wiley) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:47 p.m.]
161. The new Prime Minister received me briefly at the Foreign Office where he presides ad interim.
He expressed his utter amazement at finding himself at the head of the government and complained that he had no preparation whatever for his official duties.
I expressed curiosity regarding the secret military pact of the Baltic States, the existence of which the Soviet Government had alleged and he had confirmed in his proclamation. He replied that he had been obliged by the Soviet Government to say what he had said. That he had no knowledge whatever of the matter. Probably Munters alone knew whether there had been a secret agreement. He added that in Latvia as elsewhere, there was a fifth column of pro-Germans.
[Page 381]I asked when the elections would take place. He answered that preparations were being hastened, but that it might take several months.
He went on that trade now [was] continuing normally. Exports to Russia would increase. There were ample reserves and Latvia had just been able to make a large shipment of grain to Denmark, where those important deliveries were expected. Germany was demanding that Latvian shipping enter into “circular trade in the Baltic”.
Apropos of nothing, he closed our interview with vehement protestations of his pro-Ally sentiment. He impressed me as a Kerensky54 in caricature with no trace of confidence in himself or the future of his country.
- Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky, Minister of Justice in the Russian Provisional Government, March–May 1917; Minister of War, May–September, and Prime Minister, July to the Bolshevik Revolution, November 7, 1917.↩