Office of the Historian

361.11 Employees/360: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt)

Washington, December 28, 1939—6 p.m.

321. Max B. Miller and Company4 have informed the Department that the Soviet authorities are refusing to permit their employees in Grozny to report to the Embassy in Moscow in order to have their passports validated. These authorities are apparently under the mistaken impression that such a visit would be merely a preliminary step to the departure of such employees from the Soviet Union. The Company has today received from Machinoimport,5 Moscow, a telegram stating that the Company’s engineers for “unknown causes” insist upon leaving, and requesting the Company to instruct them to continue their work until the plant is in operation.

If you have not already done so, it is suggested that you inform the Soviet authorities that this Government is requiring all bearers [Page 808] of American passports in Europe to appear in person at the appropriate American diplomatic Missions and Consulates before January 1, 1940 in order to have their passports validated and that your Government is astonished to learn that the local Soviet authorities are not permitting American citizens in certain localities in the Soviet Union to proceed to the American Embassy in order to comply with this Government’s requirements.

You may add that this Government cannot encourage its citizens to continue to reside in any country the officials of which will not permit them to have ready access to American diplomatic and consular offices.

Hull
  1. 501 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y.↩
  2. All Union Combine for the Import of Equipment, Electrical Goods, and Hauling Machinery, an agency of the Soviet Government.↩