Foreign Relations of the United States, Diplomatic Papers, 1945, Europe, Volume V

861.24/6–945: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)

Washington, June 9, 1945—7 p.m.

1265. Part I. The Coordinating Committee of the Dept recently considered the problem of transfers of lend-lease goods and of similar goods by the USSR to third governments. It made the following recommendations after consultation with you:

• “1. The US Government should again formally address the USSR as follows:
  • “(a) Requesting full information concerning past and future proposed transfers of lend-lease goods to third governments or any other public authority so that such retransfers may be considered by the US for approval in accordance with the terms of the Lend-Lease Act and the Master Agreement.
  • “(b) Demanding acceptance by the USSR of the principle that it will authorize no assignment to a third government or other public authority of items similar to those received from the US as lend-lease aid until the matter has been referred to and agreement received from the US Government.
  • “(c) Indicating that should such information and assurances not be forthcoming the US will take these factors into account in considering the essentiality of items requested by the USSR.
• “2. In the event that such information and assurances are not promptly obtained, the US Government should, upon the recommendation of the Embassy in Moscow, cease shipments of specific items.”

These Recommendations become the policy of the Department. The substance of Recommendation 1 should be presented by you to the Soviet Government in Moscow. Implementation of Recommendation 2 will fall primarily upon the Supply Mission in Moscow.

A copy of the complete Coordinating Committee document is being forwarded to you.⁷¹

Part II. As implementation of Recommendation 1, you should inform the appropriate officers of Soviet Government in Moscow as follows:

1. No answer has been received from the Soviet Government to an aide-mémoire of July 6 and note of December 19⁷² on the question of transfers to third countries or authorities of articles similar to those received under lend-lease. As a matter of principle this Government expects all countries receiving lend-lease to consult it before transferring similar items.

2. The Lend-Lease Act and the Lend-Lease Agreement with the USSR provide that lend-lease articles will not, without the consent of the President of the United States, be transferred to third countries or authorities. According to information received by this Government some such transfers have been made by the Soviet Government, and the US Government now requests full information concerning such past transfers, as well as future proposed transfers, in order that appropriate consideration may be given to such cases of retransfer with a view to determining whether such transfers can be approved by the US Government or what other action might seem appropriate to take in the circumstances.

3. In the event that articles or materials of lend-lease origin, or of articles or materials similar to those received from the US under lend-lease, are in fact transferred by any receiving government to third countries, other than in accordance with the principle of consultation and agreement with this Government, the U.S. Government will regard such transfers as evidence that the government in question no longer needs from the US the specific articles or materials thus transferred.

4. Since the Soviet Government has not as yet formally replied to previous requests which ask it to confirm acceptance of the above mentioned principles, the US Government must of necessity consider this fact in determining the essentiality of future requests by the Soviet Government until a reply has been obtained.

5. It is the earnest hope of the US Government that an early reply accepting these principles will be received from the Soviet Government in order to avoid delays in reaching an understanding concerning future deliveries.

Grew

71. Not printed.
72. Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. iv, pp. 1098 and 1157, respectively.