740.0011 P.W./9–2944
The Embassy of the Soviet Union to the Department of State
1. During the first eight months of this year, from January to August inclusive, airplanes belonging to the United States Army Air [Page 1000] Force operating against the Japanese bases on the Kurile Islands (Shumushu and Paramushiru) violated the State borders of the Soviet Union 105 times. Ninety of these violations occurred in the Kamchatka Peninsula and Bering (Komandorskie) Islands regions.
The violations of the Soviet State borders were carried out both by single airplanes and by groups of airplanes, and the violations by groups of planes occurred more frequently than those by single planes.
2. According to the information at the disposal of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, the violation of the USSR State borders, which is in itself illegal, was accompanied by the dropping of bombs by American airplanes within the limits of the Soviet territorial waters and on the territory of the Soviet Union.
This is confirmed by the fact that the Soviet frontier authorities found incendiary and aircraft bombs, made in U. S. A. factories, on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
As for instance:
- a)
- On June 11 of the current year, on the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula (2.5 miles northeast of Cape Lopatka) 103 incendiary bombs were discovered, 25 of which had not exploded, with inscriptions on their casings showing that they were made in the U.S.A.
- b)
- On June 23 of the current year, on the west coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Yavina River region (44 miles northwest of Cape Lopatka) three more unexploded aircraft bombs of American make were discovered. Besides this, several cases were recorded of the dropping of bombs by United States Army Air Force planes within the limits of the Soviet territorial waters.
3. The cases of violation of the State borders assumed a special mass character in the second part of the month of August of this year. From August 15 to September 13, inclusive, the Soviet State borders were violated 22 times by airplanes belonging to the United States Army Air Force. Twelve of these violations occurred in the period between August 15 and September 1, and the remaining ten in the first 13 days of September.
In view of the fact that the number of violations, as noted above, has a tendency to increase, we have reason to believe that the United States Army Air Force Command does not take the appropriate measures to end the systematic violation of the USSR State borders by American Fliers.
In bringing the above-mentioned facts to the attention of the Government of the United States of America, the Soviet Government hopes that urgent measures will be taken for the termination of the violation of the Soviet State borders by American airplanes.