196.6/1576: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley)
779. Department’s 692, August 14, 1943, 8 p.m. The Navy Department has communicated with the Department with regard to the payment of gratuities to members of Naval gun crews serving on merchant ships. Presumably no such payments have been made since your telegram 881, October 13, 1942, 3 p.m.,32 and Navy has been so informed.
The Department desires to emphasize that its acceptance of the Soviet proposal to furnish rubles does not apply to Naval personnel.
The Department would appreciate any information available as to when the practice of paying gratuities actually ceased and the extent to which members of the Naval gun crews may have received gratuities. The Navy Department contemplates requesting the return of any money received by the gun crews. The Department would appreciate an expression of your views with reference to the possible return of this money to the Soviet authorities.33
The Navy Department points out the acceptance of gratuities by members of the Naval service is contrary to Article I, Section 9, Clause 8, of the Constitution, and states further that members of the Naval service engaged in the convoying of cargo to Murmansk and Archangel have ample reward in the knowledge that their service is of assistance to the Russian armed forces.
- Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. iii, p. 654.↩
- See telegram No. 1250, September 2, noon, from the Ambassador in the Soviet Union, p. 689.↩