861.51/3028: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)
773. With further reference to the preparation of the proposed agreement under Section 3(c) of the Lend-Lease Act for submission in Washington to the Soviet Ambassador,68 we should appreciate your views on two further questions.
Is it too soon to estimate whether the Russians will wish to have substantial quantities of food included in the schedules under Article II, or of raw materials?
With reference to raw materials, which have a rapid turnover, our interest is not as great in having the Russians agree to accept and pay for such items under Article II, with the possible exception of steel in a form adapted to post-war use. However, if the Russians desire that any such items be included in the list, we shall consider each case on its merits.
Along the lines suggested by you in your cable to Hopkins of February 9, we contemplate that another article might perhaps be incorporated in the proposed agreement providing for repayment for inventories of unused lend-lease supplies in the USSR at the end of the war where such items have a post-war use and we do not desire to exercise our right of recapture. The list of supplies to be covered by such an article would resemble the list of supplies under Article II, except that it may include additional items such as raw materials for which the Russians might be willing to pay because they are on hand ready for use. An article of this sort would be to our advantage since the recapture of most of these supplies would present practical difficulties and would be uneconomical, and their return to the United States would interfere with new production here. It would be advantageous to the USSR since, if we waive our recapture rights, these supplies will provide a readily available source for immediate relief and reconstruction needs.
Is it practicable in any sense for the Russians to determine their inventories of lend-lease supplies at the end of the war, or would a preferable approach be to include supplies shipped within a fixed number of months preceding the President’s determination that hostilities against the common enemy have ceased?
In answer to your inquiry, Lend-Lease has authority under Section 3(c) of the Act to fulfill a commitment to a foreign government to deliver after the end of hostilities an item which has not been actually contracted for by that time, provided that the contract of manufacture [Page 1074] is entered into before the expiration of the Lend-Lease Appropriation. It is contemplated in the Agreement, however, that we would, with possible exceptions necessary to complete specific projects begun, limit our commitment to deliver, and the commitment of the USSR to accept and pay, to items actually contracted for before the President’s determination that hostilities have ceased.
- Andrey Andreyevich Gromyko.↩