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

121.5561/57: Telegram

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

Moscow, August 7, 1941—7 p.m.
[Received August 8—3:40 a.m.]

1454. Lozovski asked me to call at the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs this afternoon. He expressed his satisfaction with the assurances of American material and economic assistance to the Soviet Union.⁴⁵ He then stated categorically that the Soviet Government is agreeable to the appointment of four Naval Attachés to the Embassy in Moscow and suggested that the three names not yet submitted be furnished as soon as convenient. With respect to the assignment of naval observers to reside in Vladivostok he said that the Soviet Government could not see its way clear to giving its consent for the reason set forth in my 1413, July 27, 7 p.m.

Insofar as concerns the designation of a shipping adviser to be attached to the Consulate General in Vladivostok, he said that the same objection presented itself but that the Soviet Government had, of course, no objection to the assignment or appointment of an “employee” or “clerk” to the Consulate General in Vladivostok. In order to avoid the possibility of any future misunderstanding I again invited his attention to the fact that the “employee” would be a naval officer who would concern himself with shipping matters to which he replied, “That is your business.” He made it entirely clear to me that while the Soviet Government in order to avoid a similar request from Japan and to avoid complications is unwilling that an individual should be assigned to our Consulate General in Vladivostok with title of naval observer or shipping adviser, that it has no objection to the assignment of an employee notwithstanding the fact that he may be an American naval officer provided he carries no title and that his status in Vladivostok shall merely be that of an employee of the Consulate General.

Lozovski assured me that he would notify me as soon as the material with which Lieutenant Alison⁴⁶ is to deal arrives and that Alison would be accorded the fullest facilities in connection with the undertaking which has occasioned his presence here.

Steinhardt

45. For correspondence concerning the start of wartime American aid to the Soviet Union, see pp. 768 ff.
46. First Lieutenant John R. Alison, Assistant Military Attaché at the American Embassy in Moscow, for some time at Archangel supervising the assembly of certain American fighter airplanes.