871.6363/12–144: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kennan) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 2—8:25 p.m.]
4591. The following is the text of a letter dated November 30 which I have received from Assistant Commissar for Foreign Affairs Dekanosov:
[“]In reply to your letters of November 10th and November 28 addressed to the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs V. M. Molotov and also in connection with your aide-mémoire of November 3, I wish to state that the competent Soviet authorities have again carefully examined all the data relating to the oil pipes which were removed by the Soviet authorities from Rumania. As a result of this examination the following has been established.
The American administration of the oil firms in Rumania, in which American capital participates, was dismissed from the management of these firms in the summer and fall of 1940 and replaced chiefly by Germans. From that time on the working properties of these firms became in fact German and up to August 23, 1944 the firms were used by the Germans for supplying petroleum products to the German Army. With a view to increasing the output of petroleum products vitally necessary to them, the Germans (in the person of the firm Mannesmann-Roehsen-Verband and others) during 1941–44 intensively brought to Rumania oil pipes and equipment (electric motors, et cetera) which same are being removed at the present time by the Soviet authorities.
Thus, as the Assistant People’s Commissar Vyshinski stated in his conversation with you on November 3rd, the pipes and equipment removed from Rumania constitute German military property brought to Rumania for military purposes, namely to procure petroleum products for the German Army. As a result of this, the Soviet Government considers that the pipes and equipment under discussion are military trophies and come fully under the operation of article [7] of the armistice agreement with Rumania of September 12, 1944.
Under such circumstances, the reference in your letter of November 10th to the violation of the property rights of American citizens cannot be considered well founded.
With respect to the fear of the Government of the United States of America that the exportation undertaken by the Soviet authorities of pipes from Rumania is a measure which might retard the rehabilitation of Rumanian industry, these fears are unfounded. Proceeding on the basis of the data provided by the firms themselves concerning the actual borings carried out in the Rumanian oil fields for the period 1938–43 and concerning the technical survey of the fields with boring rigs, the amount of borings which would guarantee a maintenance of production on a level of 5 million tons may be determined at 308,000 meters for 1945 for the entire Rumanian oil industry. 27,000 tons of pipe are needed for this work. According to the data of the firms themselves, there are 88,500 tons on hand of which only about 30,000 tons have been removed. There is similar data with [Page 275] respect to the firms in which American capital participates: The demand for pipes of the firm ‘Romano-Americana’, if the maximum volume of annual borings for the last years be taken as 60–70,000 meters, consists of 5 to 6,000 tons. This firm’s stocks of pipes on hand amounted to almost 13,000 tons of which it is proposed to remove 6,000 tons.
It should be noted in this connection that although the pipes and other petroleum industry equipment brought by the Germans into the oil premises during the war are trophy-property of the Red Army, nevertheless the Soviet Government, considering the needs for petroleum products in the conduct of the war against Germany, has decided to leave to the firms, including the American firm, a sufficient amount of pipes in order to guarantee the uninterrupted work of the oil industries in the future for a protracted period.
Thus the fear expressed in your letter in question that the export of pipes from Rumania may reflect on any rehabilitation of the Rumanian oil industry is not justified by the actual circumstances.
Please accept, Mr. Chargé d’Affaires, the assurances of my very sincere respect.[”]