361.11 Employees/349
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Davies)
Sir: The Department has received and read with interest the Embassy’s despatch no. 597 of September 29, 1937 concerning the difficulties experienced by American engineers in taking their documents and drawings out of the Soviet Union.
The action taken by the Soviet authorities at the port of Leningrad in the case of the three engineers of the Radio Corporation of America, who apparently left the Soviet Union in September of this year, constitutes a clear violation of the written assurances given to the Embassy by the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs on July 22, 1935, a copy of which was submitted as enclosure no. 2 to the Embassy’s [Page 398] despatch no. 761 of July 25, 1935.49 When it has been ascertained that Mr. Van Keuren has received a reply to the protest he has made to the Soviet authorities, you are requested to protest against the action taken by the authorities at Leningrad. In doing so, you may point out that if the assurances given by the Soviet Government to the effect that American nationals about to depart from the Soviet Union would be permitted to be present during the examination of drawings, plans, and similar documents in their possession are again violated, this Government will have to consider whether measures should not be taken to bring the practices of the Soviet authorities in this respect to the attention of American business men prior to their departure for the Soviet Union.
Very truly yours,