894.30/3–1047
The Embassy of the Soviet Union to the Department of State
The Embassy of the U.S.S.R. presents its compliments to the Department of State of the U.S.A. and in connection with the Department’s notes of February 24 of this year concerning the division of ships of the Japanese Navy of the tonnage of destroyers and below has the honor to state the following:
The Soviet Government accepts the proposal of the Government of the U.S.A. to the effect that the division of these ships should be entered upon without delay and to such end will send to Japan in the near future its representative with a group of six people accompanying him.54
In connection with the distribution of the Japanese ships of the tonnage of destroyers and below according to groups, and also the details of the organization of the division of the ships and the technicalities of their delivery, in the opinion of the Soviet Government all of these questions could be determined and agreed upon on the spot by representatives of the four Governments—the U.S.S.R., U.S.A., Great Britain, and China in collaboration with the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan. The ships to be delivered to the Soviet Union in accordance with the division must be sent to the port of Nakhodka.
With reference to the fact that the Soviet Government does not possess information concerning the old warships of the Japanese fleet of a tonnage higher than that of destroyers, it would be grateful to the Government of the U.S.A. for the transmission to it of such information.55
- The Soviet Embassy informed the Department in its note 83, May 17, that this group, led by Rear Admiral A. M. Stetsenko, had left for Japan (894.30/5–1747).↩
- For Mr. Acheson’s statement of April 11 on Japanese vessels available for delivery to the four Powers, see Department of State Bulletin, April 20, 1947, p. 717.↩