411.61 Assignments/83: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Soviet Union (Henderson)

63. Department’s 61, May 1, 5 p.m.: At the request of the Department of Justice, Department discussed with Soviet Ambassador74 yesterday possibility of bringing to the United States a Soviet legal expert, preferably a competent Soviet Government official, to give testimony on the point mentioned in the Department’s telegram under reference. Ambassador was informed that the presence of such a person was desired in May or June and that one week’s sojourn in New York would be sufficient. The Government would, of course, pay traveling expenses and appropriate remuneration for services rendered. Ambassador thought that it would be possible to obtain the services of a qualified person for the purpose indicated and said he would take the matter up with his Government.75 The Department desires that you make certain that the Foreign Office realizes the Department’s interest in this matter and endeavor to expedite favorable action.

Hull
  1. Alexander Antonovich Troyanovsky.
  2. It was subsequently arranged that Mark Abramovich Plotkin, the Assistant Chief of the Juridical Department in the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, would come to the United States in the summer of 1936 in the private capacity of a Soviet legal expert. Plotkin made a second trip, December 1938–January 1939; but when his presence was desired again later in 1939, it was learned that he had been purged.