800.00B/8–3045
The Ambassador in Mexico (Messersmith) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 7.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Department’s mimeographed memorandum instruction of August 7, entitled “Methods of Communist Infiltration”,36 in which is quoted the substance [Page 879] of a telegram received by the Department from the Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. at Moscow, Mr. Kennan,37 and in which attention is brought to the fact that Paris is again becoming a center of operations for international Communist agents and in which respect Mr. Kennan makes some very pertinent remarks.
I am very appreciative of the Department’s having brought this memorandum instruction to the attention of this Embassy to which it will be helpful for guidance and background. Mr. Kennan is obviously in a better position to know than others of us what the objectives and procedures of the Soviet Government are as planned in Moscow. We in other parts of the field can see the working out of this policy.
I am sending this brief despatch to the Department to indicate that so far as our observation and knowledge in Mexico is concerned, there is no doubt that Mr. Kennan’s remarks are pertinent and that the Soviet Government is following definitely the policy and procedure indicated in his telegram to the Department under reference. Ever since last December when Lombardo Toledano38 was in London for a labor meeting there it has been obvious that he is completely an agent of the Soviet Government and that he has been chosen by it or by elements in that Government as their agent. The attitudes of Lombardo are well known to the Department prior to his visit to London in December of last year. He was always unfriendly to the United States; always friendly to Soviet Russia and while he stated that he was not a Communist, he was in fact a Communist. Since December of last year, however, Lombardo has almost completely thrown off the mask to the degree that it is understood in Mexico that he is more interested in representing a Soviet point of view than any Mexican point of view although he is a Mexican citizen.
This Embassy is continuously reporting upon the activities of Lombardo Toledano and this is not the place to refer in any detail to them. I merely wish to mention here that in spite of the fact that Lombardo’s complete sellout to the Soviet Government is well understood in Mexico, his power in the internal Mexican situation for the present is certainly greater. This is due not to any general adherence to the ideas which he represents but is due to the circumstances surrounding a Presidential election campaign in Mexico and in which Lombardo is playing so far a very real role.
It is interesting in connection with Ambassador Caffery’s telegram from Paris,39 referred to in the memorandum instruction under reference, and in connection with Mr. Kennan’s telegram from Moscow, [Page 880] to note that Lombardo left Mexico a few days ago for a trip which will take him to London and to Paris. Before leaving here he made it clear that his stay in London would be relatively short but he seemed to lay a great deal of stress in his conversation with his friends on the importance of his stay in Paris.
May I take the liberty of adding that I think it is most helpful for the Department to send to its Chiefs of Mission material of the kind covered in the instruction of August 7, for background and guidance.
Respectfully yours,