861.51/4–1448
Memorandum by the Director of the Office of European Affairs (Hickerson)1
FC has received information to the effect that on April 12 the Amtorg Trading Corporation of New York, which is the official purchasing agent of the Soviet Government in the United States, informed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York that it had received instructions from the State Bank of the USSR in Moscow to withdraw 42 kegs of gold bullion valued at $4,491,000 which were being held by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for Soviet account for resale. Direct telegraphic confirmation of these instructions was received by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from the State Bank of the USSR. The bullion was delivered alongside the Soviet vessel Volga on the same afternoon, was personally loaded by the crew, and the vessel sailed for Leningrad at 6 p. m. on April 12.
It is understood that this shipment represents all known Soviet gold holdings in the United States.2
[Page 831]FC has also received reports to the effect that records believed to come from Amtorg have recently been burned on the Pratt estate on Long Island. Additional Amtorg files have been crated and shipped back to the Soviet Union.
These activities are believed to presage a drastic reduction or perhaps complete termination of Amtorg operations in the United States. This step was probably motivated by the new export control measures which are effectively limiting exports from the United States to the Soviet Union.