711.00111 Armament Control/Military Secrets/2023

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Controls (Green)

Mr. William Francis Gibbs, of Gibbs and Cox, Inc., naval architects, called me by telephone from New York this afternoon. He said that the Soviet naval mission had just shown him a letter99 authorizing the mission to proceed with the purchase of two 1800 ton destroyers to be constructed according to the plans approved by the Navy Department in recent decisions transmitted to Gibbs and Cox by the Department of State. Mr. Gibbs said that he did not pretend to understand the Russian mentality or the Soviet Government’s methods of doing business but that the letter which he had been shown would, if he were dealing with Americans, seem to him to be a definite indication of intention to proceed with the proposed transaction.

Joseph C. Green
  1. Letter of July 20, 1939, not printed.