Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943, The British Commonwealth, Eastern Europe, the Far East, Volume III

861.24/1318: Telegram

The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Dooman) to the Secretary of State

Kuibyshev (Moscow), March 11, 1943—9 a.m.
[Received 1:15 p.m.]

247. Department’s 151, March 9, 9 p.m.⁷⁶ Following is a translation of the article in full:⁷⁷

“Statement by Stettinius

Washington, January 21 (Tass⁷⁸)

Stettinius, the Lend-Lease Administrator, has made the following statement:

In [1942] the United States achieved considerable success with regard to the delivery of armament and other materials to the Soviet Union on the basis of the Lend-Lease law. We are not yet able to send as much as we would wish or as much as the Soviet Army needs. Moreover, part of what we sent has been lost en route. However, deliveries on the basis of the above law, although made slowly at the beginning, have now increased greatly. They continue to increase despite the shortage of merchant ships and despite enemy attacks on the difficult routes leading to Russia. In November 1942, deliveries to the Soviet Union reached a new high. Exports to Russia in November, 1942, exceeded 13 times those of January, 1942. War material constituted two-thirds of the value of the materials shipped in November. The rest were industrial materials for Soviet war plants and foodstuffs. By January 1, 1943, the United States had sent to the Soviet Union on the basis of the Lend-Lease law more than 3,200 tanks, 2,600 airplanes, 81,000 trucks and other military automobiles. England had sent to Russia more than 2,600 tanks and more than 2,000 airplanes. England is delivering this armament on the basis of the Lend-Lease principle. American deliveries of foodstuffs to the Soviet Union are increasing rapidly in importance. Up to the present the people of the Soviet Union have conducted their remarkable struggle against the Nazis mainly with their own armament. However, the aid rendered to Russia is increasing to considerable proportions. In 1943 it will increase even more.[”]⁷⁹

Dooman

76. Not printed, but see footnote 50, p. 743.
77. This text, as translated from the Russian version, is substantially the same as that printed in the New York Times, January 21, 1943, p. 1.
78. Telegraphic Agency of the Soviet Union, an official communications agency attached to the Council of People’s Commissars.
79. For some comparative statistics on aid given to Allied governments by the United States, see W. H. McNeill, Survey of International Affairs, 1939–1946: America, Britain, and Russia (Oxford University Press, 1953), pp. 238 and 444.