361.1115 Kujala, Arthur J./42
The American Ambassador in the Soviet Union ( Steinhardt ) to the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union ( Molotov )40
Excellency: I have the honor, in pursuance of instructions just received from my Government, to recall to Your Excellency the case of Mr. Arthur John Kujala, an American citizen, whose detention by the Soviet authorities was the subject of a long series of communications from this Embassy, beginning with its note number 567 of June 17, 1938.
A review of Mr. Kujala’s case indicates that he is a native-born American citizen concerning whose citizenship no doubt could arise on the basis of naturalization, loss of citizenship, or dual citizenship. The Soviet authorities were well aware of Mr. Kujala’s American citizenship at the time of his arrest, in as much as his American passport had been repeatedly exhibited to the proper officials, from whom he had received residence permits issued on the basis of his possession of an American passport.
[Page 915]Despite their knowledge of Mr. Kujala’s American citizenship, the Soviet authorities did not notify this Embassy of his arrest (which apparently took place on September 23, 1937, and was not discovered by the Embassy until June, 1938), nor were its repeated inquiries regarding his arrest ever answered. Furthermore, permission to visit Mr. Kujala was not granted until nearly two years after his arrest.
Moreover, during his detention Mr. Kujala claims to have addressed three letters to this Embassy, none of which was ever received; nor has Mr. Kujala or the Embassy ever been advised formally or informally of the charge upon which he was detained and said to have been sentenced to five years imprisonment.
My Government, in view of the foregoing facts, feels constrained to express its astonishment at the failure of the Soviet Government to observe the pledge arising out of the formal engagement entered into by M. Litvinoff on behalf of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, as set forth in the letter dated November 16, 1933, addressed by him to the President of the United States—the text of which is as follows:
[For the text of this letter, see page 33.]
In view of the foregoing I have been directed to request an explanation of the course pursued by the Soviet Government in this case.
Accept [etc.]
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in his despatch No. 217, December 16, 1939; received January 25, 1940.↩