121.861/22: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:50 p.m.]
1653. Reference Department’s 1027, September 4, 7 p.m. At the suggestion of the British Ambassador and in reliance upon the expressed intention of the Department to instruct me in accordance with the sense of its telegram under reference, Cripps and I called on Molotov yesterday evening.
I informed Molotov of the composition of our special mission, that it would arrive in London about the middle of September and that the American and British missions would proceed from Great Britain to Moscow arriving here about October 1st. Cripps stated to Molotov that he was not yet informed as to the composition of the British mission except that it would be headed by Lord Beaverbrook. To this Molotov replied that he assumed he would be advised of the composition [Page 832] of the British Mission in the course of the “next few days” to which Cripps replied in the affirmative.
Cripps stated that as the two missions would comprise about 45 persons with a considerable amount of baggage it might be difficult to transport all of them by air from Great Britain and that it was his intention to suggest to his Government that the personnel other than the members of the two missions and the baggage be sent on a cruiser several days in advance and that the members of the missions follow by plane.
We then pointed out to Molotov that it would not be possible for the two Embassies to house so large a number of persons or to furnish local transportation for all of them, to which he replied that the Soviet authorities would attend to these matters and that he would give the necessary instructions to the Acting Chief of Protocol.86
- A week later, Ambassador Steinhardt reported that arrangements had been made for the members of the missions to use the National Hotel at the regular rates of 50 to 150 rubles per person a day (121.861/27).↩