Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, Eastern Europe; The Soviet Union, Volume IV

861.111/4–2447: Telegram

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

confidential   u.s. urgent

Moscow , April 24, 1947—7 p. m.

1544. On basis of letter dated 23 April from Vyshinski advising me that FonOff saw no reason why cases of two Soviet wives of American citizens should be referred to higher competent Soviet authorities,¹ I asked Durbrow² today to tell accredited American correspondents of Embassy’s efforts in past years to obtain exit visas for Soviet wives. He gave dates of many written and oral requests by Harriman,³ Secretary Byrnes and myself since 1945, which resulted in obtaining only 10 exit visas, and stated that on basis of last letter from Vyshinski we inferred that wives still here would not obtain exit visas which made their cases similar to those of British-Soviet wives. He gave names and addresses of 15 husbands in US who were or are still attached to Embassy whose wives have not obtained visas, despite continuous efforts by Embassy.

He also informed correspondents that retroactive Soviet interpretation of new decree of Feb 15⁴ forbidding marriage of Soviet citizens to foreigners probably precludes the granting of Soviet exit visas to about 80 wives of American war veterans and approximately 100 other wives of American citizens all of whom have expressed desire to join husbands.⁵

Smith

1. A translation of this letter, here adequately summarized, was sent to the Department in despatch 1205 from Moscow on April 29, not printed. It was in reply to the Ambassador’s two letters of February 27; see footnote 5, p. 719.
2. Elbridge Durbrow, Counselor of Embassy in the Soviet Union, at times Chargé d’Affaires.
3. W. Averell Harriman had been Ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1943–1946.
4. See telegram 1203 from Moscow on April 5, p. 722.
5. In a memorandum of a conversation on November 18, concerning the case of Mrs. Mela Hirshfield, William A. Crawford of the Division of Eastern European Affairs remarked that since the decree of February 15 he had seen “no encouraging evidence to indicate that the Soviet Government plans to reverse its policy with regard to the Soviet wives of foreign nationals.” (123 Hirshfield, Louis)