Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/32214: Telegram

The British Prime Minister (Churchill) to President Roosevelt 76

London, October 13, 1943.

455. Your telegram No. 373 of October 5th [4th], An investigation has been made into this leakage. Your telegram77 containing Stalin’s reply was dated October 2nd and reached me on that day. Kuh’s cable was filed on the evening of October 1st. Although the Soviet Embassy here are not generally so promptly and fully informed by Moscow, these facts suggest that they were on this occasion told the terms of Stalin’s reply before that reply reached you, and that they gave its contents to Kuh.

The censor who passed Kuh’s cable made an error of judgment and has been reproved. He was influenced by the statement in Kuh’s cable that its contents came from “American sources”. This may have been a device to disguise its real origin.

Kuh’s messages frequently show him to be in possession of information to which he is not entitled. He often causes us trouble. We are trying to track down his sources. Any help your people can give would be welcome.

  1. This telegram was received from the British Foreign Office by the British Embassy in Washington on October 13, 1943, and forwarded by the latter to the Department of State on October 16.↩
  2. Not found in Department riles.↩