Editorial Note

The old United States cruiser Milwaukee had been made available to the Soviet Union in April 1944 in connection with the question of the distribution of Italian naval and merchant vessels among the Allied governments. The Milwaukee (temporary Russian name, Murmansk) was not transferred under lend-lease provisions. For documentation on the disposal of the Italian fleet and the return to Great Britain and the United States of the warships loaned to the Soviet Union during World War II and the work of the Four-Power Naval Commission, see Foreign Relations, 1948, volume III, pages 969 ff., in particular the editorial notes on pages 969 and 991.

The cruiser Milwaukee belatedly came in at Lewes, Delaware, on March 8, 1949. The Soviet crew was not allowed ashore, but returned to the Soviet Union on March 11.