800.01B11 Registration—Ovakimian, Gaik (Dr.)/8
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Henderson)
| Participants: | Mr. C. A. Oumansky, Soviet Ambassador; |
| Mr. Ray Atherton, Acting Chief, Division of European Affairs; | |
| Mr. Loy Henderson, Assistant Chief, Division of European Affairs. |
At his request, the Soviet Ambassador called upon Mr. Atherton at the Department late this afternoon. Mr. Henderson was also present.
The Ambassador said that he had a formal statement which he desired to make with regard to the recent arrest of Gaik Ovakimian, an official of the Soviet Government duly registered with the Department of State and one of the outstanding Soviet chemical engineers and authors. Some of Mr. Ovakimian’s scientific works were being circulated in this country.
According to the Ambassador, at 11:45 a.m. on May 5, Mr. Ovakimian was proceeding to his office in New York City in a taxicab when the taxicab was overtaken by three automobiles and compelled to halt. The occupants of these automobiles ordered him to leave the car and accompany them. Mr. Ovakimian had been in the United States for a number of years; knew the English language and American laws quite well; and was aware that he was entitled to the same legal consideration as American nationals. He therefore asked that he be shown a copy of the warrant or subpoena under which he was being detained. Instead of the persons arresting him, who eventually turned out to be agents of the F. B. I., showing any authority for their actions, they seized him by force, treated him brutally, showered insults upon him, handcuffed him, and forced him into one of the automobiles with them. On the way to the court house they continued to insult him, daring him to resist them, and evidently trying to provoke him to commit some act which would give them an opportunity to continue to mishandle him. For instance, although he was sitting peaceably in the automobile, they would make such remarks to him as, “So you refuse to come with us, do you?” The Ambassador said that he personally saw evidence of the brutal treatment to which Mr. Ovakimian had been subjected at the time of his arrest. His wrists were swollen, skinned, and bruised as a result of the manner in which he had been handcuffed.
At the court house Mr. Ovakimian was taken into a room where a dozen F. B. I. agents continued to taunt him and make insulting [Page 959] remarks regarding him and regarding other Soviet officials in the United States. After a short time a Mr. Simon58 who apparently was the F. B. I. agent in charge, entered the room and joined with his subordinates in abusing the prisoner. When Mr. Ovakimian asked permission to get into contact with the Soviet Consul General, Mr. Simon informed him that he was following the wrong line. He was told that he should be good and obedient, drop his request to see the Consul General, answer the questions which were being put to him, and that if he behaved himself properly it would be much better for him.
According to the Ambassador, Mr. Correa, the United States District Attorney in New York, finally entered the room and joined in the abuses and insults which were being leveled at the prisoner. Mr. Correa told the prisoner that since he had refused to submit voluntarily to arrest it had been necessary to use force. The District Attorney also began to argue with the prisoner with regard to whether or not the latter was entitled to diplomatic immunity. Although Mr. Ovakimian did not ask for such immunity, the District Attorney talked to him as though he had insisted upon his right to it.
Mr. Ovakimian continued to beg for an opportunity to consult with the Consul General and with an attorney. Finally, after almost two hours, he was permitted at 1:15 p.m. to get into telephone communication with the Consul General who, accompanied by a Vice Consul, hurried to the court house. The Consul General guaranteed that if Mr. Ovakimian would be released he would remain in New York in order to answer any charges which might be placed against him. The District Attorney refused to permit Ovakimian to leave under this guaranty of the Consul General. Finally they were taken to the Chamber of Federal Judge Hulbert. Before the Judge, the District Attorney charged that:
- 1.
- The prisoner had refused to appear as a witness in a pending lawsuit.
- 2.
- He had refused to accept a warrant and subpoena.
- 3.
- He was preparing to depart surreptitiously from the United States in order to escape responsibility for his activities and to avoid appearing as a witness.
According to the Ambassador, the prisoner denied the charges which the District Attorney had made and requested legal counsel. The Judge said that Mr. Ovakimian could be released only upon a bail of $25,000. In spite of the pleas of Consul General that he be given time to raise this money, the prisoner was sent to the Federal prison where he spent the night.
The Ambassador said that the treatment which Mr. Ovakimian received at the Federal prison, which is at 427 West Street, New York [Page 960] City, was almost unbelievably brutal. Although the Ambassador knew that in certain parts of Europe prisoners were treated in an inhuman manner, he was not aware that prisoners were given such treatment in the United States. Mr. Ovakimian was placed in the dirtiest and filthiest cells imaginable. While he was in prison he was moved from one cell to another. Sometimes he was alone; in other cases he was with drug addicts, habitual criminals, and persons of the lowest type. While in these cells he was abused and threatened by his fellow prisoners as well as by the guards who were supposed to protect him. Twice he was subjected to a humiliating physical examination. Under mockeries and insults, his clothing was removed from him. While without clothing he was being subjected to protracted and unnecessarily detailed physical examinations, his physical characteristics and his country were ridiculed. Both officials and fellow prisoners threw insult after insult at the Soviet Union. Finally, he was put in a cell in which there was an extremely dirty mattress. He was so uncomfortable that he practically had no sleep. There was no proper ventilation in the room and the following morning when his breakfast was brought to him he was so nauseated that he could not eat. His refusal to have breakfast was considered as insubordination. The guards proceeded therefore to push him around and otherwise mishandle him. He was finally taken to the Warden of the prison who told him that he was an enemy, a saboteur, and should be given a good beating. Finally the Warden told the guard, “Take him away before I have him beaten up.” He was thereupon forced to scrub the floor of a cell as punishment for his refusal to eat breakfast.
After the prisoner had been compelled to scrub the floor he was subjected to a second physical examination where again he was ridiculed and humiliated. Following this examination, Mr. Ovakimian was taken to court and released on a bail of $25,000.
The Ambassador said that with regard to what had occurred he desired to make four statements:
1. He requested an explanation of the arrest without a warrant and of the treatment thus accorded to an official of the Soviet Government who was in the United States as an official on official business;
2. He desired the Department of State to inform the Department of Justice that Mr. Ovakimian had been duly registered by the Soviet Embassy with the Department of State, that Mr. Ovakimian had first been registered with the Department of State by the Soviet Embassy on May 8, 1940 along with 97 other Soviet officials in this country, and that again under date of March 81, 1941 the Soviet Embassy had directed a communication to the Department informing the Department of Mr. Ovakimian’s presence in the country. The fact was that Mr. Ovakimian as early as February 18, 1941, had filled out the forms required by the American Government and had submitted them to the [Page 961] Embassy. The Embassy did not send them to the State Department, however, until March 31, 1941 since it had planned to submit a number of these forms simultaneously.
The District Attorney in discussing the matter with the Judge had charged that the registration was very late; that the registration receipt card which Mr. Ovakimian had received from the State Department was dated only on April 3. In the Ambassador’s opinion this charge did not make sense. The Department of State had never set any date as the limit before which the registration forms should be sent to it by the Embassy. It had been understood that the Embassy would submit all the forms just as soon as it could conveniently do so. In the various notes which the Department had sent to members of the diplomatic corps calling for registration there had also been no reference to time limits for registration. It was the fault of the Embassy, if there was any fault, that the form covering Mr. Ovakimian had not been sent in earlier. Mr. Ovakimian had done all that could be expected of him by filling out his form and sending it to the Embassy on February 18. The Embassy, however, did not feel that it was at fault since it waited until forms were filled out for all the Soviet officials in the United States before sending any of them to the Department.
With regard to the registration in the Spring of 1940, the Ambassador said that the First Secretary of the Embassy, Mr. Chuvakhin, had been informed by Mr. Page of the Department of State that the Department could find no record of the Embassy having notified the Department in 1940 of the presence of Ovakimian in the United States. Unfortunately, the Department last year did not give any kind of receipt which would permit the Embassy or the Soviet official concerned to prove that his presence in the United States had been duly notified to the Department. Although the Embassy did not retain copies of the notification forms which it had submitted to the Department, nevertheless, its card index files plainly showed that Mr. Ovakimian’s name had been included among 98 sent to the Department under cover of a note dated May 8, 1940.
3. It was difficult to disassociate the arrest of Ovakimian from other actions which had been taken recently by the American Government with the apparent purpose of making trade relations impossible between the Soviet Union and the United States.
4. The Ambassador reserved the right to take up this matter again formally with the Department of State upon the receipt of appropriate instructions from his Government.
After having delivered these four statements the Ambassador repeated that he was deeply shocked at the treatment which had been given to this distinguished official of the Soviet Government and man of science.
Mr. Atherton said that the Ambassador had told a most astonishing tale and he assured him that efforts would be made to get at the bottom of the whole matter.59 He added that it would serve no purpose to attempt to reply now to all the statements which the Ambassador had [Page 962] made. After appropriate inquiries had been made, the matter would be discussed with the Ambassador either by telephone or otherwise.
The Ambassador again referred to the matter of the registration of Mr. Ovakimian with the Department in May 1940. He repeated that although no copies of the forms which had been submitted on May 8 were kept at the Embassy, nevertheless, the card index maintained at the Embassy showed that notification had been made regarding Mr. Ovakimian. He wondered whether the Department had as yet been able to discover any trace of such notification having been made. Mr. Henderson said that the Department’s files had been searched carefully and no evidence whatsoever could be found that the Department had been notified in any way of the presence in the United States of Mr. Ovakimian by the Soviet Embassy prior to the receipt of the Ambassador’s note dated March 31, 1941. It was true that in May 1940 the Soviet Embassy had sent a note to the Department of State enclosing forms covering 98 Soviet officials in this country. There had been no form attached to this note, however, relating to Mr. Ovakimian.
The Ambassador said that the charges that Mr. Ovakimian was planning to leave the country in order to escape the consequences of his actions were ridiculous. It was true that Mr. Ovakimian was planning to leave just as were most Soviet officials connected with Amtorg since the United States was now making it impossible for Amtorg to function effectively.
As the Ambassador was preparing to leave he said that he must add that he was not personally surprised at the arrest of Mr. Ovakimian. The atmosphere which had been carefully created in Soviet-American relations was such that actions of this kind directed against Soviet officials were to be expected.