711.62114/8–2844
The Secretary of State to Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy
My Dear Admiral Leahy: I refer to your letter of August 28, 1944,69 setting forth the policy established by the Combined Chiefs of Staff with regard to claimants of Soviet nationality found among German prisoners of war taken by American forces, and enclose for your consideration the Russian texts, together with English translations, of two notes dated September 9 and September 23, 1944, from the Ambassador of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.70 These notes concern the repatriation to the Soviet Union of such personnel [Page 1256] and the problem of the regulation of questions connected with their presence on territories under Allied control.
I also enclose a copy of the Department’s memorandum of September 27, 1944, to the Soviet Ambassador71 in reply to certain questions raised by him in a conversation with the Under Secretary of State on September 12, 1944.72 There are further enclosed a paraphrase of telegram no. 2212 dated September 15, 1944, which was transmitted to the American Ambassador at Moscow73 in compliance with the recommendations made in your letter under reference and a paraphrase of telegram no. 3652 of September 24, 1944, from the American Ambassador at Moscow74 in reply thereto.
It will be noted that in the telegram of September 24, the American Ambassador at Moscow raises certain questions concerning the policy established by the Combined Chiefs of Staff and states that he has not approached the Soviet Government in the matter since he assumes that the Department will desire to secure information concerning the British-Soviet negotiations at London and to consider the implications of the British policy in the Middle East. The British Embassy at Washington has been requested to furnish the Department with information regarding the British-Soviet negotiations in London concerning Soviet citizens who were evacuated to the United Kingdom after they had been captured in France. As soon as such information is received it will be transmitted to you.
I am not replying to the notes of the Soviet Ambassador on the basis of the information set forth in your letter of August 28 since they raise considerations to which your letter does not refer. I should appreciate receiving an expression of your views concerning the several matters referred to in the notes of the Soviet Ambassador and with regard to the questions raised in the telegram of September 24 from the American Ambassador at Moscow in order that appropriate replies may be made to those communications.
In view of the political complications involved in this problem, I suggest that it might be useful if representatives of the Department of State might be included in whatever subcommittee of the Combined Administrative Committee you may set up or have set up to make recommendations on this matter. In this connection I understand that the British Joint Chiefs have informed the British Embassy of [Page 1257] their intention to recommend the inclusion in the subcommittee of representatives of the Embassy.75
Sincerely yours,
- Not printed.↩
- Ante, pp. 1246 and 1252, respectively.↩
- Supra.↩
- See memorandum of September 12, p. 1247.↩
- Ante, p. 1247.↩
- Ante, p. 1253.↩
- In a telephone conversation on September 29, 1944, Mr. Paul Gore-Booth of the British Embassy informed Mr. Bernard Gufler of the Special War Problems Division that the British military authorities in Washington were recommending to the Combined Chiefs of Staff that representatives of the Department of State and the British Embassy be included on the sub-committee dealing with the question of Soviet nationals taken as German prisoners of war. He remarked that the British hoped that the Department would refer matters relating to this question to the Combined Chiefs of Staff “in such a way as not to start combined military agencies working without coordination with the diplomatic side.” (711.62114/9–2944)↩