Office of the Historian

124.61/224a

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Soviet Union (Thurston)

Washington, December 15, 1941—1 p.m.

1288. Your 2050, December 13, 11 a.m.63

1.
In view of changed military situation you may in your discretion not issue the instructions authorized to Thompson in the Department’s 1259 of December 4, 8 p.m.64 You may issue such instructions, however, in case the military situation should again change and you should consider it advisable that Thompson should leave Moscow.
2.
You are authorized without further instructions from the Department to transfer the Mission back to Moscow in case the Foreign Office should decide to return to that city. See Department’s 636, May 5, 1941.63
Hull
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Not printed; authorization was given in this telegram for Thompson and his staff to leave Moscow for Kuibyshev, if the danger of travel was not greater than would be faced by remaining in Moscow as the German attack approached its culmination (124.61/223a).↩
  3. Not printed.↩