711.61/801

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)

The Soviet Ambassador called to see me by arrangement this afternoon.

The Ambassador stated with regard to the Roszkowski case that, in view of the statements which I had made to him in our previous conference concerning the United States citizenship of Mr. Roszkowski,9 his Government had agreed to reopen the question and that he expected further word in the near future.

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With regard to the situation I had described to him in our prior conversation, namely, that some five hundred individuals claiming American citizenship now under the jurisdiction of the Soviet Union, the great majority of whom had been residents of Poland prior to the invasion of Poland, had not been permitted by the Soviet authorities to come to the American Embassy in Moscow in order to attempt to prove their citizenship, the Ambassador said that he had received a telegram from his Government stating that during the past six months the American Embassy had sent to the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs eighty notes covering some five hundred cases. The Ambassador stated that in this regard he was informed by Mr. Molotov10 that Mr. Lazowski11 had requested Ambassador Steinhardt some time ago, in order to facilitate procedure, to segregate in this list of five hundred names the names of those who, in the opinion of the Ambassador, had a prima facie claim to American citizenship through the documents in their possession. The Ambassador stated that no action in this sense had been taken by Ambassador Steinhardt. He went on to say that unquestionably a great many individuals were claiming American citizenship in order to get to Moscow and that unless there was some reasonable proof that the individuals claiming American citizenship were in fact entitled to a recognition of such claim, the Soviet authorities did not wish great masses of people coming to Moscow without some valid reason.

I replied by saying that certainly the Ambassador must realize that many of these individuals in former Poland might have had their papers destroyed by bombardment or in their hurried flight have lost their papers and that the mere fact that an individual did not, in view of these circumstances, possess full documentation was by no means an indication that he was not entitled to American citizenship. I stated that certainly no action should be taken by the American Ambassador which would give rise to a later claim on the part of the Soviet authorities that the individuals not listed in any preferential list were, by reason of such fact, prejudiced and not entitled to full consideration of their possible citizenship. I said, however, that I would discuss this question further with Mr. Atherton12 and Mr. Henderson.

S[umner] W[elles]
  1. See memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of European Affairs, January 8, pp. 667, 674. Additional comment on this matter is in telegram No. 30, January 8, from the Ambassador in the Soviet Union, p. 866.
  2. Vyachesiav Mikhailovich Molotov, People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union.
  3. Solomon Abramovich Lozovsky, Assistant People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union.
  4. Ray Atherton, Acting Chief of the Division of European Affairs.