811.711/1585
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador of the Soviet Union (Umansky)40
The Secretary of State presents his compliments to His Excellency the Ambassador of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and has the [Page 740] honor to refer to his note of March 19, 1941 concerning the detention by the United States postal authorities of second-class mail (prints) originating in the U. S. S. R.
The regrets of the Government of the United States that mail addressed to the Soviet Embassy and consular offices should have been detained as the result of action taken by authorities of the United States have already been conveyed to the Ambassador.
The action of the United States authorities in detaining certain categories of mail addressed to persons or organizations in this country, other than to the Soviet Embassy and Soviet consular offices, has been taken in pursuance of the laws of the United States. In order to assist the Ambassador in gaining an understanding of these laws, there are attached hereto a copy of an opinion of the Attorney General, dated December 10, 1940,41 and a document entitled Agents of Foreign Principals and of Foreign Governments.42
The authorities charged with the enforcement of the laws referred to above have informed this Department that in determining whether or not delivery should be made of matter sent to the United States through the mail by agents abroad of foreign principals who have not filed with the Secretary of State registration statements in accordance with the provisions of the Act of June 8, 1939 [1938], as amended,43 they are not discriminating with regard to country of origin.
The Secretary of State desires further to state that according to information received from the appropriate American authorities, mails passing in transit through the United States from the Soviet Union or other countries are not being opened or detained and are being handled with all the usual expedition. Any delays in the delivery of such mail which the foreign addressees may be experiencing are due, therefore, to factors for which the authorities of the United States are not responsible.
- The text of this note had been approved by the Post Office Department, the Department of Justice, and the Under Secretary of State. The note was sent to the Soviet Embassy on April 15, 1941.↩
- 39 Op. Atty. Gen. 535.↩
- Department of State publication No. 1370 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1939).↩
- Approved August 7, 1939; 53 Stat. 1244.↩