861.24/434¾
Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Henderson)
Lieutenant Stout, assistant to Colonel Maxwell, gave me the following information today with regard to the various lists which have been under discussion between the Soviet Ambassador and Mr. Oumansky [Welles].
It appears that Mr. Oumansky submitted early in November or late in October through the Department to Colonel Maxwell a list of 62 items which he desired to have exported. It seems that all of these items represent machines which had already been manufactured and [Page 420] were ready for export. Colonel Maxwell’s office broke this list into two: list A was composed of 32 items which it was decided should not be exported; list B was composed of 29 items, the export of which was agreed to. Apparently an additional item was not considered as a machine tool and so was not included in either list.
Of the 32 items on list A it was subsequently found that 4 items were aeronautical equipment rather than machine tools. One of these 4 items has been released for export and the other 3 are under discussion. The list of 21 machine tools, which Colonel Maxwell on December 12 informed us it had been decided to release, has been made as list F. List F is composed of machine tools taken from the 32 items on list A which we had originally decided not to release. Five other items on list A have been requisitioned by the Government and 2 have been turned over to American firms; therefore, of the 32 items originally on list A, 7 have been retained in the United States, 22 are to be released, and 3 aeronautical items are being discussed.
Sometime early in November, Mr. Oumansky submitted a list of 103 items, for which export licenses had been refused, to the Ministry of Export with the request that the refusal be reconsidered. This list was known as list C. Subsequently, list C was amended by an additional 15 items. The additional list is known as list D. Thus, lists C and D together comprise 118 items. From list C only 1 item was released. From list D 2 items have subsequently been released and it is learned that 2 had already been released. Lists C and D are made up of heterogeneous items which the Soviet Government wished particularly to have.
On December 11 a list of 6 items was sent to the Department by the Administrator of Export Control with the statement that it had been decided that these items should be released. None of these items have appeared on any lists, with the exception of 2 which apparently have been carried on list D referred to above.