711.61/843½
Memorandum by Mr. William D. Moreland, Jr., of the Office of the Secretary of State
At 5:20 this evening General Hurley89 telephoned to report on his visit to the Soviet Ambassador upon whom he called at 4:45 p.m. General Hurley is departing for New York in the morning.90
The General said that the Ambassador appeared to be in a rather truculent and critical mood, pointing out that Mr. Willkie, Ambassador Standley, the Military Attaché and the Naval Attaché td Moscow were all coming home and wondering why, with all this wealth of reporting imminent, anyone else should have to go to Russia. The Ambassador criticized American assistance to his country and again asked General Hurley what there was about his country that we still wanted to know. The General felt that he gave as well as he received and succeeded in getting the Ambassador into a pleasant and cordial mood.
The Ambassador asked to see the President’s letter to Mr. Stalin91 but the General side-stepped the issue in a cordial manner although with some effort.
General Hurley is of the opinion that his call upon the Ambassador was definitely successful and that it probably did some good.
The Ambassador promised that he would report the General’s coming visit to Russia and that his Soviet visa would be available by the time he reached Tehran. The General hoped that the State Department might be able to keep a watchful eye on the visa question.
- Maj. Gen. Patrick J. Hurley, Minister to New Zealand, sent as Personal Representative of President Roosevelt to the Soviet Union, November–December 1942.↩
- By telegram No. 511, October 13, 1942, the Department advised the Embassy in Kuibyshev that “General Hurley, returning to his post, is proceeding by way of the Near East and Soviet Union on a special mission under the direction of the President and is the bearer of a letter from the President to Stalin.” (121.891/6)↩
- For the text of this letter, see p. 659.↩