The Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union ( Stalin ) to President Roosevelt 42
I share your endeavor toward cooperation of our two governments in working out economic and social matters connected with the tasks of improving working conditions on a world scale. The Soviet Union is unable, however, to send its representatives to the International Labor Bureau Conference in Philadelphia due to the motives, stated in the letter to Mr. Harriman, as the Soviet trades-unionist organizations expressed themselves against such a participation and the Soviet Government cannot but take into account the opinion of the Soviet trades-unionist organizations.
It goes without saying that, if the International Labor Organization in reality becomes an organ of the United Nations and not of the League of Nations, with which the Soviet Union cannot have connections, then the participation in its work also of representatives of the Soviet Union will be possible. I hope that this will become possible and that appropriate measures will be carried out already in the near future.
- Copy obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N. Y.↩