893.24/1444

The Secretary of State to Mr. Harry L. Hopkins, Special Assistant to President Roosevelt

My Dear Mr. Hopkins: I refer to your letter of September 22 addressed to Mr. Elbridge Durbrow of this Department relative to the desire of the Chinese Government to develop a supply route from Karachi through Iran and the Soviet Union to China.

In this connection you may recall that the Department in a telegram dated May 9 requested Admiral Standley to urge the Soviet authorities to give sympathetic consideration to the Chinese proposal to send supplies to China through the Soviet Union. The Admiral in a telegram dated July 3 informed the Department that he had discussed this question with Stalin and had received the impression that sympathetic consideration would be given to the proposal.

On September 21 the British Embassy left an aide-mémoire at the Department indicating that the British Government had instructed its Ambassador in Moscow to support the Chinese démarche to the Soviet authorities for permission to transit war materials over the Soviet railroad line from Ashkhabad to Alma Ata and suggested that the Department might desire to instruct Admiral Standley to use his good offices in support of this Chinese request. On September 22 a Secretary of the British Embassy telephoned to say that it would no [Page 607] longer be necessary to telegraph Admiral Standley since the British Foreign Office had just informed the Embassy that the Soviet Government had agreed to the proposal.

A telegram is being sent by this Department to Admiral Standley requesting him to report on this matter.

I shall be pleased to see that any further information regarding this matter is immediately brought to your attention.

Sincerely yours,

Cordell Hull