861.20211/67: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:12 p.m.]
1487. The Department may wish to take cognizance of the following statements recently made at the Embassy by one of the more intelligent visa applicants who has been experiencing difficulties in obtaining a Soviet exit visa.
The applicant stated that he was in considerable disfavor with the local authorities in the town of his residence in Soviet occupied Poland because he had refused to accept repeated offers from them to issue to him the desired exit visa and to facilitate his departure from the Soviet Union in every possible way and even to pay him substantial and regular compensation in the United States provided he would sign an agreement to undertake espionage work in the United States. He said the Soviet authorities had told him they were not granting permission to anyone to leave the Soviet Union unless the individual [Page 235] gave an undertaking to the foregoing effect and that he was foolish to refuse if he really wished or hoped to leave the Soviet Union. The authorities further stated that they already had many new agents working for them in the United States and that he should seize the opportunity extended to him as it was only a question of a short time before the Soviets would take over the Government of the United States.
The foregoing which reflects a common practice long known to the Department and recently applied in the Baltic States indicates that many visa applicants and doubtless many among the individuals who acquire American passports to return to the United States are being solicited to sign such agreements as a condition precedent to the issuance of exit visas. Nearly all of these individuals have relatives remaining in Soviet territory and are therefore subject to pressure in the United States if they fail to carry out their agreement. Furthermore the undertaking required of them might be availed of to bring about their deportation from the United States or to prevent them from ultimately acquiring American citizenship thus constituting a continuing form of blackmail during their stay in the United States.
I accordingly feel fortified in my previously expressed view that the best interests of the United States are not served by permitting aliens residing in territory under Soviet dominion to emigrate to the United States at the present time in any large numbers.