Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1942, Europe, Volume III

861.404/485

The Under Secretary of State (Welles) to the British Ambassador (Halifax)⁴⁶

Washington, October 29, 1942.

My Dear Ambassador: I have given careful consideration to your request for the views of this Government concerning the exchange of ecclesiastical visits between Great Britain and the Soviet Union in conformity with the suggestion made to the British Ambassador at Kuibyshev by the Metropolitan of Kiev⁴⁷ of the Russian Orthodox Church.

If in the opinion of the British Government and of the established Church of Great Britain such an exchange of ecclesiastical visits is considered desirable at the present time, this Government will have no observations to make.⁴⁸

However, should the Russian Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union make a similar proposal to this Government for an exchange of ecclesiastical visits between the United States and the Soviet Union, I believe that we would be disposed to inquire of the Soviet Government whether the proposal of the Russian Orthodox Church had the support of and was in conformity with the wishes of that Government.⁴⁹

Believe me [etc.]

Sumner Welles

46. The Acting Chief of the Division of European Affairs, Ray Atherton, noted that Ambassador Standley “has approved this letter.”
47. Nikolay Yarushevich, Metropolitan of Kiev and Galich, Exarch of the Ukraine, and Exarch of the Western Ukraine and White Russia.
48. In an earlier memorandum of October 16, 1942, Charles E. Bohlen, of the Division of European Affairs, commented to Under Secretary of State Welles that as the proposed visits of Metropolitan Nikolay “to this country or to Great Britain would have no direct connection with the war effort and would only serve to raise again the extremely controversial question of religion in the Soviet Union, it would be desirable not to encourage either of these visits.”
49. At first Under Secretary of State Welles, in a memorandum of October 17, 1942, thought it was important to consider “whether, by availing ourselves of this suggestion, something could not be done towards strengthening the possibility that in the postwar period the Soviet Government would permit something more nearly approaching freedom of worship than is now the case.” For previous correspondence on the interest of the United States in freedom of religious worship in the Soviet Union, see Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. i, pp. 995 ff.