Office of the Historian

861.24/1–3047

The Lend-Lease Administrator (Lane) to the Chairman of the Government Purchasing Commission of the Soviet Union in the United States (Eremin)

Washington, January 30, 1947.

Dear Mr. Eremin: We have been advised that the Bureau of Federal Supply (until recently known as the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department) has issued instructions that no further action is to be taken incidental to shipment of so-called Lend-Lease material to any country. This includes material covered by the Agreement of October 15, 1945,1 between the United States and the Soviet Union. These instructions were issued as a result of a letter dated; January 10, 1947, from the General Accounting Office to the Commissioner of Accounts Treasury Department,2 a copy of which was given to Mr. Tepliakov of your staff.

Until the issue raised by the above-mentioned letter from the General Accounting Office can be clarified, the Treasury Department is naturally in no position to carry out the proposals made in my letters to you of November 27 and December 17, 1946.3 However, as I have already assured your representatives, the Department of State is bending every effort to resolve this matter. Meetings are being held with committees of the Congress for clarification of existing legislation or the enactment of new legislation in order that this matter may be brought to a speedy conclusion.

As you no doubt realize, the ramifications of the problem before us are such that at this writing I am unable to forecast the date on which the matter will be settled. In the meantime, the check of your Government is being retained by the Treasury Department for application to [Page 656] the purposes for which it was deposited, if and when a favorable solution of the matter is reached.

I trust that you will accept my sincere expression of regret at the delay which has occurred.

Sincerely yours,

Chester T. Lane
  1. For text of the agreement relating to the disposition of Lend-Lease supplies in inventory or procurement in the United States (the “Pipeline” agreement) signed at Washington on October 15, 1945, see Department of State Treaties and Other International Acts Series (TIAS) No. 3662, or United States Treaties and Other International Agreements (UST), vol. 7 (pt. 7), p. 2819.↩
  2. Robert W. Maxwell.↩
  3. Foreign Relations, 1946, vol. vi, pp. 856 and 859.↩