Barclay Acheson Diary, 1926 Part 2 (Aug 1926–Jan 1927)

Context

The second volume follows Acheson from Moscow through the Volga River region — retracing areas where NER had conducted famine relief in 1921–22 — back to the Caucasus for further negotiations, then south through Constantinople, Adana, Aleppo, Beirut, Sidon, Jerusalem, and Cairo before returning to Greece and sailing home via Naples.

Key episodes include the escalating Seversky property crisis in Tiflis, involving protracted negotiations with Soviet official Ter-Gazarian over NER's institutional assets; inspections of the Beirut and Sidon operations, including rug factories, refugee camps, and the Hilltop property; and the Armenian earthquake of late 1926, which forced emergency responses and complicated the already-strained Caucasus budget. The volume closes with Acheson's return to New York in December 1926, where the organizational crisis over General Secretary Charles V. Vickrey's leadership and the Golden Rule fundraising scheme was reaching a breaking point.

This volume is particularly valuable for its documentation of NER operations in Soviet territory, where access for American organizations was limited and politically sensitive.