740.00118 European War 1939/417: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Extract]36
Moscow, July 18,
1941—5 p.m.
[Received 6:06 p.m.]
[Received 6:06 p.m.]
1374.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- 2.
- I renewed my request for a circulation permit for Major Yeaton. Lozovski replied that permits had been granted to Thurston37 and Thompson and that the military authorities had expressed themselves as unwilling to grant any more to the Embassy. I remarked that the military authorities were cutting things a bit fine in view of what was contemplated on their behalf in the United States, not to speak of the revocation of the order of expulsion of the two Soviet Assistant Military Attachés in Washington, and suggested that he bring my remarks to the attention of the appropriate military authorities.
- 3.
- Lozovski stated that no decision has as yet been arrived at in connection with the Navy Department’s request to station two naval observers at Vladivostok and said that if Umanski had given the Department assurances to the contrary it had been the results of a “misunderstanding.” In response to my inquiry as to whether there had been any change in the status of the requests of Majors Yeaton and Michela to visit the front, Lozovski replied that the matter had been finally disposed of by instructions to the Commissariat for War to the effect that our Military Attachés were to be given full information as to conditions but that as permission was not being granted to any foreigners their requests in this respect must be denied. When I invited his attention to the assurance given the Department by Umanski that permission to visit the front had been or would be granted, Lozovski remarked that this must have been the result of a “misunderstanding.” I then asked Lozovski whether he could give me [Page 902] any information concerning Devenis,38 to which he replied that Devenis’ present whereabouts was unknown to the Soviet authorities. When I invited his attention to the fact that Umanski had reported to the Department that Devenis had been found, Lozovski replied that this must also have been the result of a misunderstanding.
Steinhardt