893.24/1327a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley)
Washington, May 15, 1942—2
p.m.
224. Following is a paraphrase of a message from Foreign Minister T. V. Soong for the Chinese Ambassador:
It is requested that you transmit to Foreign Commissar Molotov or to appropriate Russian officials the following communication:
- (1)
- The transportation through Russia of some urgent Lend-Lease supplies for China is becoming a matter of vital need because of the difficulties as well as the threat to the route to China from India.
- (2)
- It would be most preferable to China that such supplies be flown from Nome, Alaska, to Hami by way of Irkutsk, Siberia. An alternative air supply route would be from Karachi by way of Iran or Afghanistan to Samarkand, and then into China north of the Himalaya Mountains.
- (3)
- United States airplanes can be furnished to run these routes and United States crews and pilots can also be furnished unless the Soviet Government prefers to furnish Soviet crews and pilots. It would be hoped by China that some airplane gasoline to run these routes could be obtained from Russia, or, if this could not be done, that there be arranged suitable transportation of United States airplane gasoline to key places along the route.
- (4)
- Will the Russian officials be agreeable to giving the required assistance and approval in setting up these routes and will those authorities authorize Mr. Litvinoff, Soviet Ambassador here, to discuss and determine the question with us and with the American authorities?
- (5)
- Besides these vitally important air routes which it is
hoped may be built up as quickly as possible from small
beginnings, we would like to get the opinions of the Soviet
officials concerning the feasibility of sending Lend-Lease
material to China by the following three land routes,
assuming that we furnish American trucks for these routes,
and also gasoline, some of which would come from America and
some from Russia:
- (a)
- The route of the Iran-Soviet Railway which commences on the Persian Gulf at Bandar-Shaphur and runs to Bandar-shah through Teheran by the Trans-Iranian Railway. From Bandarshah steamers on the Caspian Sea can transport supplies to Krasnovodsk where they could be transshipped by the Soviet Railway to Sargiopol. It is proposed at first to transport daily 250 tons, later increasing this amount to 500 tons when facilities for handling through transportation to China improve.
- (b)
- The route from Karachi to Zahidan to Ashkhabad. Supplies would go by rail from Karachi to Zahidan where the 750 mile all-weather road connects with the Ashkhabad Soviet railhead to Sargiopol. It is proposed to transport by this route 100 tons daily, which would be increased later to 250 tons.
- (c)
- The route commencing from Eastern United States ports by North Europe, going through the Arctic Ocean to the ports on the Yenisei and Ob Rivers, from which points transshipment by river boats connects with the intersection of the Trans-Siberian Railway, at Krasnoyarsk for example; then by railroad to Sargiopol. It is understood that navigation on the Yenisei River is possible to Igarka, 500 miles interior, for vessels drawing 23 feet. The weather, however, permits navigation only in the months of July and August and only a limited quantity, say 30,000 tons, can be delivered. It is therefore urgent that a favorable decision be obtained at once. The chief materials to be sent over this route immediately would probably be aviation gasoline for use on the air transport route through Siberia.
- (6)
- It is also desired that there be discussed the feasibility of combining some of the air and land transportation routes proposed above, in order that the routes might be in part air transport and in part land transport.
Hull