340.1115/8157: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:35 p.m.]
867. My telegram No. 817, October 27, 5 p.m.53 When the Soviet postal and telegraph authorities refused to accept for transmission letters and telegrams addressed by the Embassy to American citizens in Soviet occupied Poland, and even returned to the Embassy letters which had been previously accepted for transmission, I began to send letters to these persons through the medium of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs with the request that the letters be transmitted through such Soviet Government channels as may be available to the Commissariat. The Embassy received a note from the Commissariat last evening returning these letters and stating that the Commissariat has no means of transmitting the Embassy’s letters to American citizens in the above mentioned area.
An official of the Commissariat stated orally this morning that the Embassy’s requests for information concerning the welfare and whereabouts of American citizens in western White Russia and western Ukraine will be acted on by the Commissariat and that telegrams [Page 632] and letters from the Embassy to these Americans will be accepted for transmission by the Soviet postal and telegraph authorities as soon as “conditions have been stabilized and normal communication has been restored”.
Since I feel that we should not continue to permit ourselves to be denied the right to communicate with Americans in Soviet-occupied Poland, a condition which has now existed for a month and a half, I am today requesting the Commissariat for permission to have Ward54 proceed to that area on November 9 (immediately after the Soviet November holidays) for the purpose of determining the whereabouts and welfare of American citizens. I am not certain that this permission will be granted without some delay as I am still awaiting permission from the Soviet authorities to have Ward travel to Pom-orzany in connection with the recovery of Ambassador Biddle’s effects.