Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1941, General, The Soviet Union, Volume I

700.00116 M.E./279: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt)

Washington, January 25, 1941—11 a.m.

92. Your 150, January 24, 5 p.m.⁸⁸

1. The following is the text of a letter handed to the Soviet Ambassador by Mr. Welles on the evening of January 21:

[Here follows text of the letter printed on page 696.]

2. This information was contained in the radio bulletin of January 21 issued immediately thereafter, which the Department assumed that you had received.

3. All articles covered by the moral embargo are now subject to export licenses so that the control of exports to the Soviet Union has not been weakened by this action. Since American industries and raw materials are being devoted almost entirely to the fulfillment of the national defense program, it is not believed that the lifting of the moral embargo will have any pronounced effect, at least in the near future, on American exports to the Soviet Union.

Hull

[A message of congratulations upon his inauguration sent to President Franklin D. Roosevelt by Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union, on January 27, 1941, and the acknowledgment by the President on February 5, 1941, are printed in Department of State Bulletin, February 8, 1941, page 161.]

88. Not printed.