711.62114/9–1244
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Stettinius)
The Soviet Ambassador took occasion to discuss with me at Dumbarton Oaks55 today the question of Russian prisoners in American hands. He pointed out that there were a number of Russians who had been captured by the Germans and forced into the service of the German Army to perform various duties, such as working in kitchens and performing manual labor. Many of these Russians had been captured by our forces in North Africa, Italy and France, and a number of them had been brought to the United States as German prisoners of war. Some of them are said to have attempted to communicate with the Soviet Embassy but their mail had not been allowed to be delivered.
The Ambassador stated that in recent months arrangements had been made for six or eight of these Russians to be returned to the Soviet Union. Recently he had heard there were a number of Russian prisoners in a camp in West Virginia and he had arranged for Mr. Bazykin, First Secretary of the Soviet Embassy, to visit the camp and talk with the Russian prisoners there. Mr. Bazykin had learned they were not being well treated, were receiving literature critical of the Soviet Union and in some cases were being asked to remain permanently in the United States. The Ambassador stated that his Government was very disturbed and he hoped the entire matter would be looked into and he hoped some arrangement could be established under which the Soviet Embassy in Washington might regularly receive such information as the number of prisoners in the United States and where they were located. He hoped the Embassy might be kept currently informed as additional prisoners arrived.
I assured the Ambassador we would look into the entire matter immediately and would communicate with him as promptly as possible.
- For correspondence on the conference held at Dumbarton Oaks, August 21–October 7, 1944, see vol. i, pp. 713 ff.↩