711.61/6–548: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Smith) to the Secretary of State
1053. Text of proposed letter:1
“My dear Mister Molotov: I refer to our conversation of March 18 and to my letter of March 20, relative to the question of the official representation of the United States and the Soviet Union in our respective countries, and the desire of my government to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement which would permit the maintenance of [Page 882] adequate staffs in the United States and in the Soviet Union respectively.
In this connection, I refer in particular to the matter of the necessary housing and customs facilities needed to maintain an adequate American staff in the Soviet Union. You will recall that Secretary of State Byrnes, when he was here in December, 1945, took up with you the question of obtaining sufficient additional housing for the Embassy to meet its minimum needs, and I have on many occasions taken up this question with you and with other officials of the Soviet Government both orally and by letter. I have also, during the past seven months frequently protested the excessive amount of duty charged against the Embassy customs quota for the importation of all supplies, including official supplies sent from the United States for the operation of the Embassy, for instance, as I have previously pointed out, under the maximum tariff which is always charged against the Embassy quota, the duty on one pound of blank paper, which would cost little more than one dollar in the United States, amounts to $17, and other items are charged at correspondingly high rates. Such exorbitant charges for the importation of official supplies naturally use up our free importation quota at a very rapid rate, and since the free importation allowed the United States Embassy, with an authorized strength of approximately 150 employees, is no greater than that allowed foreign missions which have a total strength of only five or six persons, even though the Soviet Embassy in Washington is allowed unlimited custom free importations, it has for some time been impossible for us to import free of duty a sufficient quantity of other essential supplies and footstuffs for the maintenance of the present reduced Embassy staff.
Since receiving Mister Vyshinski’s letter of April 10, in which he indicated that the administration for services to the diplomatic corps would give appropriate attention to the housing needs of the Embassy, and that the question of the customs quota of the Embassy was under examination by the appropriate Soviet authorities, the matter of housing has again been taken up with the administration. Despite the fact that the question of additional housing for my mission has been under consideration by the administration for over two and a half years, a representative of the administration stated that it would be impossible to indicate when an additional small building could be made available to the Embassy, and he added that no assurances could be given regarding the assignment to the Embassy of six additional two or three room apartments before the first six months of the calendar year 1949.
In regard to the customs problem, during the six and a half months which have elapsed since our first conversation on the subject, representatives [Page 883] of the Embassy have at various times discussed this question with the appropriate officials of the ministry in an effort to reach a mutually satisfactory solution of the questions initially raised by the Embassy more than nine months ago. Although certain concessions have been accorded, the persistent efforts of the Embassy to receive a reply to the basic customs questions raised in its letter of November 3, 1947, have been without success.
In further connection with Mister Vyshinski’s letter, I must advise you that, while I agree that the determination of the size of the official staff of its missions abroad should lie within the competence of the appointing government, I am sure that you will in turn agree that the principle is meaningless in cases where the receiving government itself controls all the means and facilities which enable such staffs to live and work, and fails to provide them in adequate measure.
Important decisions regarding the strength of the Embassy staff and the assignment and relief of personnel, all of which depend upon the decisions of the Soviet Government on the basic questions raised by the Embassy in the matters of housing and customs quotas, should have been taken several months ago. They have been put off repeatedly because my government did not wish that any lack of patience on our part should militate against a reasonable adjustment, but it is simply impossible to defer them any longer, and since no reply has been received to the Embassy’s letter of November 3, 1947, I have no other alternative than to assume that the decision of the Soviet Government in these questions is negative, reluctant though I am to do so.
At the present time there are approximately 120 American officers and employees of the United States Government in the Soviet Union, about 30 less than the authorized strength of this mission. It is now necessary further to reduce this strength to the point where those remaining can be adequately housed and maintained in the housing provided and under the customs quota established by the Soviet Government. In this situation my government has instructed me to inform you that since it has become impossible, for the reasons stated, to maintain an adequate United States staff in the Soviet Union, while at the same time the number of official Soviet personnel in the United States remains more than twice as large as that the United States can maintain in the Soviet Union, it has reluctantly come to the conclusion that the representation of our respective countries should be on a basis of equal strength.
Accordingly, and in order that there may be full reciprocity in regard to the size of the respective representations of our governments, I have been instructed to request that the total Soviet personnel in the United States, including those attached to the Amtorg Trading Corporation, be reduced within the next 60 days to a total strength of 120 [Page 884] persons, the size of the present United States representation in the Soviet Union. As the United States representation is further reduced to a strength which can be maintained under existing restrictions, you will be informed and requested to make corresponding reductions in the Soviet strength in the United States.
As I informed you when I first discussed this question on November 19, 1947, my government has not wished to apply restrictive measures on the number of Soviet personnel in the United States so long as there remained a reasonable prospect of arriving at some satisfactory solution of this problem with the Soviet Government. I sincerely regret that nine months of correspondence and discussion have apparently failed to produce any solution.
Please accept, Mister Minister, the assurances of my highest consideration.”
- Ambassador Smith explained his reasoning for the proposed course of action in his immediately preceding telegram 1052 from Moscow on June 5; not printed. He declared in part: “Since we have waited without success over nine months to obtain satisfactory solution these problems, I feel we should now lay them across the line, but while from Moscow viewpoint seems we should delay no longer, Dept will desire give consideration to reaction this step on American public, …” The Ambassador intended to hand the letter, probably to Molotov, and then if “after reading letter he again pleads for patience I shall inform him we can wait no longer and that if he wished inform me within a maximum of two or three days of favorable decision taken by Soviet Govt, I shall communicate such decision to Dept for its consideration.” (124.611/6–548)↩