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  4. Document 657

861.24/7–148

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador of the Soviet Union ( Panyushhin )

The Secretary of State presents his compliments to His Excellency the Ambassador of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and has the honor to reply to the questions raised by the Ambassador in his conversation with the Under Secretary of State on July 1, 1948.

With reference to the question of the interest due July 1, 1948 under the Lend-Lease Agreement of October 15, 1945, the Government of the United States is willing to accept payment of an amount of such interest computed in accordance with the principles set forth in the Ambassador’s note of July 4, 19471 and used by the Soviet Government as the basis of payment of interest due July 1, 1947. The payment made for interest due July 1, 1948 should be somewhat greater than that made in July 1947 since subsequent billings rendered to the Soviet Government have included additional items completely delivered by the Government of the United States. In accepting payment of a reduced amount of interest at this time, the Government of the United States reserves its right to claim such additional amounts of interest as may be due as a result of the discussions proposed in its note to the Soviet Ambassador dated November 17, 1947.2

With reference to the question of claims of United States firms against the Soviet Government for goods for which licenses have not heen granted for export to the Soviet Union, it is, of course, difficult for the Government of the United States to comment on this question until it has been informed as to the details of these claims, including descriptions of the goods and their values, the amount of the claims, [Page 1001] the names of the claimants and the agencies of the Soviet Government against which the claims have been made. In this connection, however, it is understood that the risk of loss resulting from inability to obtain export licenses must be deemed to be assumed at the time a contract of purchase and sale is entered into, and the Government of the United States cannot accept any liability for losses incurred as a result of the operation of its export control procedures.

George C. Marshall
Washington , July 26, 1948.
  1. Foreign Relations, 1947, vol. iv, p. 702.↩
  2. This note was directed to the Chargé of the Soviet Union Vasily Akimovich Tarasenko; ibid., p. 710.↩