611.6131/596a: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Soviet Union (Thurston)
415. Department’s 413, August 3, 2 p.m., and Embassy’s 961, August 5, 11 a.m. Renewal of the principal exchange of notes alone for another year almost certainly would be sufficient to insure that imports of coal from the Soviet Union would be free of the import tax. Therefore, even if the Soviet authorities are for the present not interested in the question of coal exports to this country, the Department desires, because of the domestic situation in this country, to have the note referring to the 400,000 ton limitation renewed again.
Hence in expressing to Mikoyan appreciation for the motives which led to his failure to mention coal imports you should inform him that your Government feels that it is necessary to have the coal notes repeated in connection with the renewal of the agreement for the reasons given above.
You are authorized to sign the pertinent documents referred to in your telegram under reference and in this telegram. The Department prefers that the English and Russian texts should be considered equally authentic.
Please inform the Department promptly upon signing the agreement so that the appropriate release may be given here. You may inform the press in Moscow upon signing, using, if you wish, the preliminary figure of $67,779,000 as the value of U. S. exports to the Soviet Union in the first 11 months of the 1939–40 agreement year. In the entire 1937–38 and 1938–39 agreement years the figures were $64,224,000 and $50,255,000, respectively.