Office of the Historian

861.24/12–244

The Director of the Division for Soviet Supply, Foreign Economic Administration (Wesson), to the Chief of the Division of Eastern European Affairs (Bohlen)

Washington, December 2, 1944.

Dear Mr. Bohlen: I am very much concerned by the treatment which has been accorded the various engineers who are working in the U.S.S.R. on Lend-Lease projects. We have received reports from our Mission pointing out that engineers are now grouped in Class 3 with clerks and enlisted men as far as the ration is concerned. Apparently this classification of engineers is too low to permit them to obtain the food which they require as active men working outdoors in remote areas of the U.S.S.R.

We have already sent a great deal of food to these engineers and have recently supplemented it with a shipment of an additional eight tons. A future shipment of 18 tons is planned for the spring. We never intended when this operation was begun to send so much food as we thought the U.S.S.R. could give a sufficiently high norm to the men to permit them to buy in the market. Certainly this was the intent of the Agreement which Mr. Stettinius signed with Mr. Lukashev49 on July 6, 1943.

I am enclosing a copy of a letter I have written today to Lieutenant General Rudenko setting forth the situation.50 In view of the over-all problem involving American citizens in the U.S.S.R. and the possibility of their number being increased in the future on various projects, I believe the State Department will have a vital interest in the matter. Would you consider the situation and advise me whether you believe it desirable for a note to be dispatched by the Secretary of State or Ambassador Harriman in Moscow asking for a revision of the ration norms as they relate to American engineers.51

Sincerely yours,

C. M. Wesson

Major General, U.S. Army
  1. Konstantin Ignatyevich Lukashev was Deputy Chairman of the Government Purchasing Commission of the Soviet Union in the U.S.A. Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., was then Lend-Lease Administrator.↩
  2. Not printed.↩
  3. Mr. Bohlen replied on December 9 and reported dispatch of a telegram to Ambassador Harriman authorizing him to support the request for increased rations for American engineers.↩