340.1115A/2229a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt)
1047. It would be appreciated if you could inform the Department regarding the various available means of exit from the Soviet Union. The Department understands that there is some kind of air service between the Soviet Union and Turkey; it is also possible that a service has been opened or will be opened in the near future between the Soviet Union and Iran. However, the Department does not have information which will enable it to judge which, if any, services are sufficiently regular to afford American citizens in the Soviet Union some assurance of being able to leave that country except by travel through a combat zone. Is it possible at the present time for American citizens to proceed from Moscow through Manchuria to Shanghai? Are passenger-carrying vessels at present plying between Vladivostok and Japan? Are the Soviet authorities willing to transport American citizens by air to Chungking?