861.24/5–2244
The Chairman of the Government Purchasing Commission of the Soviet Union in the United States (Rudenko) to the Acting Executive of the President’s Soviet Protocol Committee (York)
Dear General York: We wish to call your attention to two recent instances of diversions to the Navy Department of industrial equipment procured for the U.S.S.R., which diversions were made not only without our consent, but without our prior knowledge or without our even being informed of intention to divert.
At the request of the Navy Department, the Division for Soviet Supply of F.E.A. agreed to divert the following equipment under our requisition R–10438: [Page 1086]
- 1.
- Number 2 Witter cross roll shell mill.
- 2.
- Two rotary hearth furnaces—25 ft.
Under requisition R–11371, the Machine Tool Section of W.P.B. directed that the following equipment be diverted to the Navy.
- 1.
- 400 ton hydraulic turret type shell piercing press.
- 2.
- 1–100 ton hydraulic descaling press.
- 3.
- Pump accumulator station.
This equipment is urgently needed by U.S.S.R. Ordnance. Equipment under R–10438 was scheduled for shipment to the U.S.S.R. in June and shipping instructions had already been issued by the Commercial Dispatching Corp. under their release numbers, CDC–50569 and CDC–49799. Equipment under R–11371 was to be delivered to the port of embarkation on or before June 30th and was accordingly scheduled for shipment to the U.S.S.R. in July.
We cannot agree to the diversions made by W.P.B. and F.E.A.’s Division for Soviet Supply inasmuch as it will definitely hurt our war effort to forfeit this equipment at this time. We further wish to point out that the manner in which these diversions were executed is contrary to the provisions of the Third Lend-Lease Protocol, which stipulates that due consideration is to be given to U.S.S.R. interests before diversion is made, as well as that we are to be given an opportunity to fully discuss the diversion in question and to ascertain the effect such diversion might have on the U.S.S.R. war effort.
In view of the fact that the aforementioned diversions will create serious difficulties for our ordnance industries, we request that the W.P.B.’s and the Division for Soviet Supply’s directives to divert the material in question be cancelled and that the equipment be promptly reinstated on our account so that we may ship it on schedule.
We also request that in the future, intention to divert any material requisitioned by the U.S.S.R. Government be filed with us sufficiently in advance to enable us to inform our government, to weigh the matter and to discuss it with the proper agencies prior to any action. Only in this way can we exercise our rights, as stipulated under the Protocol, of expressing our opinion in matters of vital concern to our mutual war effort.
Sincerely yours,
Lt. General