811.2361/7–848
The Embassy of the Soviet Union to the Department of State
No. 126
The Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics presents its compliments to the Department of State of the United States of America and, referring to the Embassy’s note no. 261 of January 5, 1948 and to the note of the Acting Secretary of State of April 20, 1948,1 containing a denial of the fact of violation by an American plane of the state border of the U.S.S.R. which took place on December 23, 1947, in the region of Cape Chukotski, has the honor to communicate the following:
The denial by the Government of the U.S.A. of the fact of that an American plane violated the Soviet border in the region of Cape Chukotski on December 23, 1947, inescapably leads to the supposition that the investigation of the said incident by American authorities was not sufficiently thorough, since repeated verification of this incident by Soviet authorities and the questioning of witnesses have again confirmed the correctness of the original information concerning the violation by an American plane of the Soviet border in the region of Cape Chukotski.
Moreover, in spite of the assertion contained in the State Department’s note to the effect that “American planes have standing orders [Page 901] to avoid any kind of violation of the Soviet border”, the Soviet border authorities have recorded a new case of violation of the Soviet State border by American military planes. This occurrence took place on February 14, 1948, at 11:20 when three American twin-engined bombers, after violating the state border of the U.S.S.R., flew over the Soviet island of Akiyuri Shima at an altitude of two hundred meters, and then turned around and disappeared in the direction of Hokkaido Island.
In addition to the said violations by American planes of the Soviet state border, there have recently been noted several cases of violation by American planes of the border on the 38th parallel in Korea.
[At this place there are omitted the descriptive details of eight alleged violations. In one instance the note charged that “the American plane which had committed the violation fired two or three machine-gun bursts at the Soviet [intercepting fighter] planes.”]
In communicating the foregoing, the Embassy, on instructions from the Soviet Government, insists upon a careful investigation of the said facts and expects the Government of the U.S.A. to take the necessary measures for the prevention of similar violations in the future.