861.24/11–644
The Assistant Secretary of State (Acheson) to the Chairman of the Government Purchasing
Commission of the Soviet Union in the United States (Rudenko)
Washington, November 7,
1944.
My Dear General Rudenko: With reference to our
conversation of November 6 and the letter from Mr. Stepanov which you
handed to me at that time, you will find enclosed a reply to Mr.
Stepanov which I would appreciate your delivering to him. As agreed
between us, I am communicating with our Embassy in Moscow, asking them
to give the same information to Mr. Stepanov.
Sincerely yours,
[Enclosure]
The Assistant Secretary of State (Acheson) to the Assistant People’s Commissar for Foreign
Trade of the Soviet Union (Stepanov)
Washington, November 7,
1944.
My Dear Mr. Stepanov: I have received from
General Rudenko your letter of November 3 relative to the
supplementary agreement to the master lend-lease agreement which we
discussed here last summer. You state that you feel that there is
perhaps a misunderstanding in regard to the agreement reached on
Appendix no. 1. Moreover, you point out that the draft agreement
submitted to you on September 14, 1944 contains several provisions
regarding which we reached no agreement during the negotiations
here.
I wish to assure you that in regard to the question of Appendix no.
1, there was no misunderstanding between us since this specific
question was not discussed in detail in Washington. In this
connection, we
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fully
understand that the Soviet authorities in Moscow after giving
further and careful consideration to Appendix no. 1 desire to
propose amendments to the schedule contained in that Appendix. We
will be pleased to receive the further views of the Soviet
Government in regard to this matter.
In connection with the other questions raised in your letter, we
completely understood that the final draft submitted to you
contained certain provisions to which your instructions did not
permit you to agree. You will recall, in this regard, that in
presenting the final draft to you, we explained that it represents
on the points at issue the final position of the United States
Government. Moreover, you will recall that in working out the
details of the final draft it was explained that because of definite
legal limitations we were not in a position to make any further
changes in the proposed agreement on several of the specific points
which you raised during the discussions.
It is our sincere hope that the Soviet authorities after giving
careful consideration to the proposals made will authorize the
conclusion of the agreement as contained in the final draft
submitted to you, with such modifications as may be mutually agreed
upon in Appendix no. 1.
Sincerely yours,
