Office of the Historian

861.24/1578: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Standley) to the Secretary of State

Moscow, July 14, 1943—10 a.m.
[Received 10:45 p.m.]

861. For Stettinius from Faymonville.

1.
First shipment of oil refinery installation is only now arriving at Vladivostok. This is Commissar’s answer to question raised in your paragraph 3, cable 527, July 6, 10 p.m.12 He states that construction machinery which is to be used in clearing work and foundation digging is accompanying first shipments of oil machinery. He promises further information on state of site preparation.
2.
News of approval of hydroelectric machinery projects was warmly welcomed and Commissar has instructed his representative in U.S. to furnish all possible assistance in speeding up deliveries.
3.
Regardless of amounts of medicines furnished by American Red Cross and Russian War Relief13 and regardless of differences of opinion about unit prices, Commissar stated that quantities requested in section 6 of Third Protocol are still desired. He admits that Soviet medical authorities who prepared list may have been unfamiliar with unit prices in U.S.
4.
Reference delivery of tanks under Third Protocol, Commissar says that American offer of M4A2 tanks is gladly accepted. Additional American offer of deliveries after July 1, 1944, under a possible fourth protocol is under consideration. Simultaneously with acceptance of American offer of tanks under Third Protocol, Commissar states that he also accepted through Soviet Torgpred14 in London the British offer of 3000 tanks assuming that 1000 would be British Valentines and that remainder of British offer would be filled by shipment of 2000 additional tanks M4A2 obtained by British from British contracts with American factories. [Faymonville.]
Standley
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. A voluntary citizens’ relief agency in the United States for the Soviet people, which was renamed the American Society for Russian Relief, Inc., in 1942 and registered with the President’s War Relief Control Board on September 28, 1942.↩
  3. A contraction for the Russian term, Torgovoye predstavitelstvo, meaning “trade representation.”↩