861.24/9–844: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 8—9:30 a.m.]
3373. Reference transportation of Swedish ball bearings. The Department’s telegram No. 2141, September 5, 11 p.m.,25 is in reply to questions raised in my 3097, August 21, 7 p.m., but does not answer Molotov’s request transmitted in my 3122, August 23, 10 [9] p.m. As I must answer Molotov’s letter of August 22, I ask urgently whether [Page 1132] approval is given to the reply I recommended in which General Deane concurs.
General Deane has received a cable from General Arnold26 agreeing to our recommendation contained in my No. 3122 and stating that the State Department was sending instructions to me to make the suggested negative reply to the Foreign Office.
[In a letter of September 9, 1944, President Roosevelt informed Secretary of State Hull: “It is my wish that no Department of the Government take unilateral action in regard to any matters that concern Lease Lend, because the implications of any such action are bound to affect other Departments of the Government and, indeed, our whole national policy. I am particularly anxious that any instructions which may have been issued, or are about to be issued regarding Lease Lend material or supplies to our allies after the collapse of Germany, be immediately cancelled and withdrawn.” In a memorandum of September 12 Assistant Secretary of State Dean Acheson wrote that he telephoned to Harry Hopkins to inquire “whether the letter should be interpreted as calling for the suspension of the discussions with the Soviet representatives”, but Mr. Hopkins replied “that it should not be so interpreted and that he was prepared to take the responsibility of advising the Department, as the President’s Lend-Lease Adviser, that this was the case.” The Secretary of State in a letter of September 13 informed the President of this understanding. (800.24/9–944)]