124.616/332: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:50 p.m.]
1309. My telegram No. 1299, July 5, 4 [7] p.m. I saw Lozovski this morning and proposed to him that eight members of the Embassy staff and two Soviet employees proceed to Sverdlovsk immediately to open a provisional Consulate. For the first time Lozovski displayed a willingness even to consider the possibility of the removal from Moscow of any members of the Diplomatic Corps. He took the suggestion in good part and after hearing my reasons said he would discuss the matter with Molotov this evening and give me a reply tomorrow. The individuals who would proceed to Sverdlovsk have been chosen and are prepared to leave on a few hours notice. Lozovski pointed out that unless and until the Soviet authorities in Moscow agreed to the departure of the members of the Embassy staff it would not be advisable for them to proceed, as they would receive no accommodations in Sverdlovsk. In the course of our discussion Lozovski referred to “Sverdlovsk or Novosibirsk” as possible sites for the Consulate or office.
In connection with the expiration of the American-Soviet trade agreement on August 5, Lozovski said that he had instructed Umanski to discuss a “prolongation” with the Department on any mutually agreeable basis, as he recognized that under existing conditions the agreement was valueless from a commercial point of view but that its continuance was politically desirable.19
I then conveyed to Lozovski the substance of the Department’s 869, July 4, 3 p.m.20 Lozovski replied that he quite understood the embarrassment that would result to the United States in assuming the representation of Soviet interests in Vichy after having declined to represent the Vichy Government in Moscow and indicated that the Soviet Government understood the circumstances and might ask Sweden to take over Soviet interests in Vichy. He said that when the refusal [Page 896] of the United States to represent the Vichy Government in Moscow had been conveyed to Bergery the latter was “furious”.
In anticipation of the Department’s approval of my suggestion (see my 3306 [1306], July 7, 2 p.m.21) that Ward22 be authorized to purchase rubles in Vladivostok, I request Lozovski to instruct the State Bank23 in Vladivostok to grant him the diplomatic rate of 12 rubles to the dollar, which he said he will do at once.
Insofar as concerns the release of Mrs. Habicht from imprisonment and the granting of exit visas to Soviet spouses of American citizens and the dropping of the charges against Ovakiamen [Ovakimian]24 and the three Bookkniga clerks,25 the stationing of a Naval Attaché at Vladivostok, and permission for Majors Yeaton and Michela to visit the front, Lozovski said that he was not yet prepared to give me replies but that all three matters were under consideration and that he hoped to be able to take the subject up with me within “the next day or two”. He also stated that he had given Umanski instructions regarding the granting of entry visas to American journalists.
I called Lozovski’s attention to the failure of our personnel and baggage which left Moscow on June 25 to arrive at Vladivostok and to Ward’s report that the train which departed on June 27 with other members of the personnel had been stopped en route (see my 1304, July 721). Lozovski replied that he would take the matter up with the railway authorities immediately and endeavor to obtain information for me as to the present whereabouts of the members of our Mission and their baggage.
- For correspondence concerning trade relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, and renewal of the commercial agreement by an exchange of notes signed on August 2, 1941, see pp. 914 ff.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Angus Ivan Ward, American Consul at Vladivostok.↩
- Gosbank.↩
- For correspondence regarding the arrest of Dr. Gaik Ovakimian and the negotiations for his return to the Soviet Union, see pp. 955 ff.↩
- Bookniga Corporation, New York, N. Y., Soviet organization for the sale and distribution of books and printed material in the United States, outlet for Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga, International Book Company, the central distributor for Soviet publications in Moscow. For difficulties encountered by the Bookniga Corporation and three of its officials for failure to register as agents of a foreign principal, see Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, pp. 931–933, and footnote 91, post, p. 982.↩
- Not printed.↩