125.536d/7–3047: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Smith) to the Secretary of State
2534. Deptel 1514, July 25.1 My views on Leningrad Consulate are as follows: we do not yet know how situation at Leningrad will develop, but estimate that initially we will have perhaps some cultural contacts and heavy load of Consular cases particularly from Karelia and Estonia. Later these sources of contact will probably be severely restricted but hardly to extent approximating Vladivostok. Moreover, in view negative Soviet exit visa policy, volume Consular cases will [Page 582] presumably later fall off. Problems incidental to establishing Consulate will require personnel with Moscow experience and changing conditions may demand that Leningrad be reinforced from time to time. Furthermore, atmosphere in Leningrad may not be so uniformly [hostile?] as it now is in Moscow and occasional changes of personnel may become desirable because of morale. My hope is that some cultural and Consular activities can be transferred permanently to Leningrad to relieve congestion in Moscow. Since we are constantly understaffed and likely to remain so until housing shortage breaks, it may be necessary to make temporary details back and forth between Leningrad and Moscow to relieve peak load at either place. These conditions indicate importance of retaining maximum flexibility until Leningrad situation clarified, and I believe that for some months Leningrad should be operated, without being so designated, as a subpost of Moscow.
Realize it is general tendency of supreme echelon to retain rather than decentralize administrative details to field agencies, and I have been guilty of this many times myself, but the result usually is to limit flexibility and effectiveness of field agency. In this case, I think it would be better to decentralize in the beginning and suggest that we handle Leningrad personnel assignments as indicated in Mytel 2312, June 302 at least until the Consulate is established and we have acquired sufficient experience on the ground to determine the actual requirements and potentialities of the office.
There is, of course, no intention of establishing an arbitrary 6-months tour as in the case of such an undesirable station as Vladivostok.
- In telegram 1527 of July 28, 6 p. m., not printed, to the Embassy in Moscow, the Department had requested opinions on some further questions. It also suspected that the attempt might be made to restrict the consular district to Leningrad, or at most to the Leningrad oblast (province). The Department desired, however, that the district should include the “oblasts of Leningrad, Pskov, Novgorod, Vologda, Ark[h]angelsk, Murmansk, and Karelo-Finnish SSR but not Baltic States.” In any discussions with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs the Ambassador could “point out that consular district of Soviet Consulate in New York comprises 22 states, in San Francisco 11 states and Hawaii, and in Los Angeles 8 Southern Californian counties.” (125.0061/7–2847)↩
- Not printed.↩