800.01B11 Registration/1644
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Soviet Ambassador called to see me this afternoon in order to say good-by before he left.37 The Ambassador arranged in my office with regard to his airplane transportation and seemed to be entirely satisfied with the arrangements to be made.
The Ambassador brought up again the matter which he had discussed with me some weeks before, namely, the prohibition placed by the Customs and Justice officials of this Government on the importation into the United States of Soviet books and periodicals. The Ambassador insisted again that these publications were in no sense propaganda and that present regulations made it impossible for the average American citizen to obtain any information with regard to the Soviet Union emanating from Russian sources. I told the Ambassador that after our prior conversation on this subject, I had immediately referred the matter to the appropriate officials of the Government who had had the matter under consideration ever since. I said I was sure that some satisfactory and equitable solution of this problem could be found.