861.24/1268: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union ( Standley ) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 7—3:50 p.m.]
116. My 108, February 4, [3] 4 p.m.51 After outlining to Vyshinski52 yesterday the developments in the United States leading up to the appointment of the Pittman synthetic rubber mission, i.e., the Baruch report,53 the intensified public and press demands for action in the field of synthetic rubber investigation and production and the resulting repercussions in Congress, I strongly emphasized the bad effect that would be created in the United States if Pittman should return home without accomplishing the purpose of his mission. I alluded to unfortunate political repercussions that might well have influence upon the pending Lend-Lease appropriation bill and I urged that the Soviet Government do everything possible to help Pittman and to expedite action. Vyshinski promised to look into the matter immediately.
- Not printed.↩
- Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky, First Assistant People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, and Vice President (Vice Chairman) of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union.↩
- President Roosevelt’s Special Rubber Committee, headed by Bernard M. Baruch and including Karl T. Compton and James B. Conant, was appointed on August 3, 1942, to make a survey of United States rubber needs. On September 10, 1942, the Committee made a 20,000–word report to the President on the situation.↩