800.796/10–3044
The Soviet Ambassador (Gromyko) to the Acting Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Secretary: In connection with your note of October 27 in which you outlined the views of the American Government on questions connected with the decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. concerning the non-participation of the Soviet delegation in the international conference on questions of civil aviation in Chicago, I have the honor on instructions from the Soviet Government to communicate to you the following.
The Soviet Government does not find it possible to reconsider its decision on the non-participation of the delegation of the Soviet Government in the conference on questions of civil aviation in Chicago. The Soviet Government furthermore cannot leave its delegation in the United States since this would provide grounds to suppose that the Soviet delegation in fact is taking part in the above-mentioned conference but only in some kind of disguised and cowardly form.
In so far as the references contained in your note to the notes of the Government of the U.S.S.R. to the Department on the thirteenth of September and also the letter of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, V. M. Molotov, of the nineteenth of October as a basis for the supposition that the Soviet Government in accepting the invitation to participate in the conference was fully informed of the fact that Switzerland, Spain and Portugal also had been invited to participate in this conference, I am unable to agree with the considerations expressed by you on this matter. It is sufficient to state that in the letter of the People’s Commissar, V. M. Molotov, it was especially mentioned that the Soviet Government was to be invited by the Government of the United States of America to a conference of the United Nations and not to an international conference with the participation also of the neutral countries of Europe and Asia and that such a formulation of the question was entirely new to the Soviet Government. The Soviet Government nevertheless agreed to take [Page 580] part in this conference, not supposing however that among the neutral countries invited to the conference could be such countries as Switzerland, Spain and Portugal which for many years have carried on a pro-fascist policy hostile to the Soviet Union.
Sincerely yours,