601.6111/4–350
Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Eastern European Affairs (Yost) to the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Perkins)
Starting with an official call on the part of the Chief of the Consular Section of the Soviet Embassy on February 28,1 the Soviet [Page 1136] Embassy has sent us three communications protesting the failure of American immigration and customs authorities at New York airport to grant the courtesies of the Port to Soviet diplomatic couriers.2 The acts of “discrimination” include the inspection of the personal baggage of the couriers and the regularization of their documents after ordinary passengers have been cleared.
In their representations the Soviets have made it clear that the Soviet Government extends customs and immigration courtesies to American couriers in the Soviet Union on a basis of strict reciprocity with the evident implication that unless the clearance of Soviet couriers is expedited our couriers will meet with retaliation on the part of Soviet officials.
The maintenance of regular and expeditious courier service between our Embassy at Moscow and Helsinki is essential to the proper operation of the Embassy. Under the Soviet law, customs and passport inspections take place upon arrival and departure from that country. Thus with our regular three times weekly courier service the Soviet officials would have the opportunity six times a week to employ their well known techniques to harass and delay American couriers. In accordance with the informal recommendation of an official of the Treasury Department3 it is suggested that you communicate with the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Graham, and convey to him this Department’s real and active interest in the maintenance of our secure communications system with the Embassy at Moscow and request whatever assistance he may give in arranging for the Collector of Customs at New York4 to extend the courtesies of the Port to Soviet diplomatic couriers. These arrangements could be made in a very informal fashion and need not require any change in the Treasury Department’s regulations. The Collector at the port of arrival has the authority to extend customs courtesies to any official. It would appear that an informal suggestion from the Assistant Secretary to the Collector at New York would suffice.
The suggestion made some years ago by Treasury that customs courtesies could be arranged in each individual case if advance notification were given of the impending arrival of any individual hardly seems practicable nowadays since practically all the couriers travel by air. It is most unlikely that advance notification could reach the Collector at the port prior to the arrival of the person concerned.
- Lëv Sergeyevich Tolokonnikov was a First Secretary of the Embassy of the Soviet Union and Chief of the Consular Section.↩
- These additional protests are not printed.↩
- This recommendation had been mentioned by Elmer Acken, the assistant to Assistant Secretary of the Treasury John S. Graham, during a conversation with Mrs. Regina F. Sanz in the Protocol Staff of the Department of State.↩
- Harry M. Durning.↩