811.20 Defense (Requisitions)/33
The Ambassador of the Soviet Union (Umansky) to the Secretary of State 32
Sir: On behalf of the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics I have the honor to bring to your attention the continuing irregular and discriminatory measures adopted by the Government of the United States of America and directed against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These measures undertaken and directed against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics are regarded by the Government of the Union as incompatible not only with the principle of “unconditional and unrestricted most-favored nation treatment” embodied in the letter and spirit of the agreement of August 4, 1937,33 which continues to regulate the commercial relations between the two countries, but also with the spirit of normal intercourse between nations.
Discriminatory measures tendentiously directed against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics not only continue to be applied but are being exercised in the United States of America against my country on an ever-increasing scale. Besides the facts of discriminatory practices which on various previous occasions in recent months I had the honor to bring to the attention of the Government of the United States, the Government of the Union is now faced with new and grave instances of discriminatory measures undertaken by the authorities of the United States against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Thus, on May 22nd, 1940, the Consolidated Machine Tool Corporation of Rochester, New York, received an order from the Assistant Secretary of the Navy not to deliver a machine tool (a planer of standard type) manufactured by the above-mentioned company on order placed in 1939 by the Soviet commercial organization, Stankoimport, and which had been inspected and accepted on behalf of Stankoimport by the Amtorg Trading Corporation, New York City.
[Page 320]On June 1st, 1940, United States customs authorities ordered suspension of the loading of the S. S. Rodina of Soviet register which had arrived in Hoboken, N. J. from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on May 22 and which had commenced loading in Claremont Terminal, N. J. on May 30th. Notwithstanding my repeated representations to the Department of State, the customs authorities not only continued to prevent the loading of the S. S. Rodina but shipments already loaded on the steamer were ordered by the customs authorities to be unloaded. On June 8th the shipper, the Amtorg Trading Corporation, was informed that of 2,736 tons which were declared for export on the above-mentioned steamer, 1,286 tons consisting of 426 items were being detained by the customs authorities for further examination with the intention of partial requisition of those items by the Navy Department of the United States. The items in question consist of machinery, especially machine tools, ordered in 1939 by Stankoimport, Machinoimport and other Soviet commercial organizations.
In connection with the inspection of the cargo of the S. S. Rodina the United States customs authorities requested from the agents of Soviet commercial organizations the presentation of a series of supplementary data over and above those contained in the usual declaration of export and going far beyond the customs formalities in ordinary usage in the United States and in contradiction to the Soviet-American agreement of August 4, 1937, which stipulates that “…34 natural or manufactured products exported from the territory of the United States of America and consigned to the territory of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics shall in no case be subject with respect to exportation …34 to any rules or formalities other or more burdensome than those to which the like products when consigned to the territory of any third country are or may hereafter be subject.”
I have been informed that similar discriminatory procedures are being instituted in regard to the loading and clearing of cargos owned by Soviet commercial organizations and assigned for shipment on the S. S. Valiente of Panaman register in New York and on the S. S. Ecuador of Swedish register in Tacoma, Washington.
I understand further that the delivery of four heavy duty engine lathes by the General Machinery Corporation, Niles Tool Works Division, Hamilton, Ohio, to the purchaser, Stankoimport, which ordered these lathes in 1939, has been halted in similar manner by order of United States authorities.
In response to previous representations referring to several of the above-mentioned discriminatory measures, I was informed by the Department of State that the official orders for nondelivery or suspension [Page 321] of loading of manufactured goods purchased by Soviet Commercial organizations, is connected with the policy of the Government of the United States to requisition machine tools essential for national defense of the United States.
The Government of the Union finds itself compelled to record the fact that the Government of the United States of America which orders or permits the requisition of equipment belonging to Soviet economic organizations and which in this connection refers to the needs of the national defense of the United States, at the same time permits and in every way furthers the delivery on a large scale to certain belligerent countries of machine tools and other equipment as well as various materials for military use.
The Government of the Union considers that the Government of the United States can not fail to realize that the above-mentioned measures, being acts of direct and indisputable discrimination against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, disrupt the trade between the two countries and are prejudicial to Soviet-American relations.
On behalf of the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics I hereby present to you its emphatic protest against these irregular and, moreover, discriminatory measures of the Government of the United States of America toward the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and inform you hereby that the Government of the Union reserves its right to present to the Government of the United States of America claims for compensation for all losses caused by the above-cited measures.
At the same time the Government of the Union feels confident that the Government of the United States of America after having considered the full significance of the facts described in this note as well as the facts referred to in previous representations, will take immediate steps to discontinue the measures directed against the rights and the interests of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and to restore normal conditions of trade between the two countries.
Accept [etc.]
- Handed to the Secretary of State during the conversation on June 12; see memorandum supra.↩
- Effected by exchange of notes, Department of State Executive Agreement Series No. 105, or 50 Stat. 1619; for correspondence concerning negotiations, see Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, pp. 405 ff.↩
- Omission indicated in the original note.↩
- Omission indicated in the original note.↩