661.119/468 a
The Acting Secretary of State to Senator Irvine L. Lenroot
Dear Senator Lenroot: A letter addressed by you to the Chief, Bureau of Exports, War Trade Board, Washington, dated August 18, 1919,24 with reference to the question of the issuance of licenses for the exportation of commodities to Soviet Russia, has been called to my attention.
In reply allow me first to call your attention to the authority upon which this refusal to license exports to Soviet Russia is based, which is Title VII of the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917,25 which makes certain exports in time of war unlawful, and I beg to advise you that the President has delegated this power to control exports as contemplated by the section of the Espionage Act referred to herein, to the War Trade Board, which became on July 1st, 1919, a Section of the Department of State.
The following is quoted from the act:
“Whenever during the present war the President shall find that the public safety shall so require and shall make proclamation thereof, it shall be unlawful to export from or ship from or take out of the United States to any country named in such proclamation, any article or articles mentioned in such proclamation except at such time or times or under such regulation and orders and subject to such regulations and exceptions as the President shall designate.”
I beg to inform you further that this restriction is being maintained not alone by the Government of the United States but by the Allied and Associated Governments as well as various neutral Governments.
I also beg to call your attention to the fact that a statement issued by the leaders of the so-called Bolshevik Government shows that practically all business as well as manufacturing has been nationalized, and the only applications which have been made for export licenses have been made for the so-called Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic. There is no evidence available to show that the fund with which the self-styled representatives of this so-called Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic had hoped to pay for the merchandise which they intended to purchase is not the gold reserve of the Russian people, or of various banks which have been seized and nationalized, and during the present unsettled conditions of Russia, it is believed by the Department that it would be [Page 159] most unwise for the Government of the United States to sanction or permit what might prove to be the exploitation of the resources of the Russian people.
I am [etc.]