861.248/174: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Thurston) to the Secretary of State
7. I handed to Vyshinski32 last night an aide-mémoire containing in paraphrase the text of the Department’s 1317 of December 30, 8 p.m.33 I informed him that I had given a copy of the aide-mémoire to the Military Attaché34 who would discuss it with the appropriate Soviet military authorities. Vyshinski replied that he would inform his Government of the matter and advise me of its response as quickly as possible.
Colonel Michela today submitted to me memorandum stating that when he called at the War Office last night he was shown an air radio facility chart furnished by the British covering the route to Basra; [Page 685] that both Colonel Faymonville35 and Colonel Griffiss36 had been informed that British policy was opposed to Soviet fliers flying over Iran, but that on December 28 the Air Attaché of the British Embassy37 advised Colonel Griffiss that this policy has been reversed; that our Government may not be aware of this change of policy, in as much as the instruction under acknowledgment refers to an agreement with the British concerning a delivery point in Iran; and suggesting that if Soviet fliers are to be permitted to fly over Iran with either British or American planes assembled by the British it would appear to be in our interest to adopt a similar policy and thus avoid the need for establishing an intermediate delivery point.38
Colonel Griffiss has also handed me a memorandum on the subject based on a conversation today (prior to his impending return to London) with the British Air Attaché. This confirms the arrangements proposed in the Department’s instruction cited above, as well as Colonel Michela’s statement regarding the change of British policy. Colonel Griffiss further states in his memorandum that while in Iran and on his flight to Kuibyshev he was impressed by its mountainous nature, the lack of proper facilities, and the adverse winter weather conditions which will prevail for some time, and that it is his opinion that more planes will reach the front if Soviet pilots who are familiar with this type of weather and their own facilities fly them not only in Russia but across Iran as well. He accordingly recommends that we adopt the new British policy and arrange to have Soviet flyers take delivery at Abadan39 of planes assembled by us at that point.40 January 4, noon.
- For correspondence concerning the necessity for the removal of the American Embassy from Moscow to Kuibyshev in October 1941, with a reduced staff remaining in Moscow, see ibid., pp. 907–911.↩
- Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky, Soviet Assistant People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. iii, p. 484. This telegram related to plans to deliver aircraft to the Soviet Government by sea to the Persian Gulf for assembly and flight to the Soviet Union.↩
- Lt. Col., later Brig. Gen., Joseph A. Michela.↩
- Col., later Brig. Gen., Philip R. Faymonville, head of the United States Supply Mission in the Soviet Union, Lend-Lease representative.↩
- Lt. Col. Townsend Griffiss was on a mission between November 1941 and February 1942 to coordinate American training and supply efforts in the Soviet Union, to secure maximum effectiveness from U. S. airplanes there, and to insure that sufficient trained personnel would be there to carry out these activities. He was killed in an airplane accident at Plymouth, England, on February 15, 1942.↩
- Group Captain W. G. Cheshire.↩
- By telegram No. 28, January 8, 1942, the Chargé in the Soviet Union advised that Colonel Michela had been told by the Soviet War Office that Kazvin had been rejected as a delivery point for airplanes; that “the Soviet Government considers the establishment of an intermediate delivery point both unnecessary and wasteful of time”, since Soviet pilots and technicians could proceed directly to Abadan and there take over assembled planes to be ferried to the Soviet Union. (861.248/178)↩
- The text of a note to the American Embassy in London from the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs regarding the establishment of the American assembly plant at Abadan was transmitted to the Department in the Embassy’s telegram No. 70, January 6, 1942, 5 p.m. The British Government was willing to accept this arrangement in principle subject to certain conditions. (861.248/176)↩
- Vyshinsky’s response was an aide-mémoire handed on the night of January 16 to the Chargé who reported in his telegram No. 57, January 17, that it confirmed “in general terms, the statements made by the Soviet military authorities to Colonel Michela.” (861.248/183)↩