Office of the Historian

861.24/1653

The Embassy of the Soviet Union to the Department of State 26

Memorandum

Below is the answer of the Soviet Government to the proposals made by the Government of the United States regarding the Third Protocol:

“In view of the fact that the U.S. Government does not agree to make available shipping space trading under the U.S. flag in excess of 2,400,000 short tons for U.S. shipment to the Soviet Union under the Third Protocol through the Atlantic Ocean, the Soviet Government, with the purpose of reconciling of the amount of deliveries with available shipping facilities, agrees to decrease the Program of supplies under the Third Protocol proposed by the United States Government from 7,080,000 tons to 5,600,000 tons, including 500,000 tons of stocks and carryovers, by decreasing the quantities of the following items/in short tons/:

a/
Wheat and flour 700,000 tons (including deliveries from Canada) instead of 1,680,000 tons.
b/
Concentrated foods 177,000 tons instead of 252,000 tons.
c/
Ferrous metals 500,000 tons instead of 710,000 tons.
d/
Petroleum products 360,000 tons instead of 565,000 tons.
e/
Various chemicals 9,200 tons instead of 18,800 tons.

At the same time the Soviet Government agrees to the above-mentioned decrease in the deliveries of the petroleum products on the provision that the Government of Great Britain will continue deliveries of aviation gasoline to the USSR from Iran at the rate of 10,000 tons per month during the Third Protocol period and the U.S. Government will replace these deliveries to England out of its own supplies without decreasing the above-mentioned amount of petroleum product deliveries to the USSR from the United States of America.

The Government of the USSR, agreeing to decrease the program of deliveries under the Third Protocol, is relying upon the assurance of the U.S. Government that the United States agrees to increase the aforementioned amount of deliveries if conditions permit and circumstances justify it in future.”

Washington , September 1, 1943.
  1. Handed on September 1 to the Secretary of State by Mr. Gromyko, who had succeeded Mr. Litvinov as Ambassador of the Soviet Union on August 22, 1943.↩