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  3. Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1940, The British Commonwealth, The Soviet Union, The Near East and Africa, Volume III
  4. Document 188

461.11/867: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Soviet Union ( Thurston )

Washington , May 16, 1940—6 p.m.

276. Your 502, May 8, 5 p.m. Please draft a reply to the Commissariat acknowledging receipt of its note of April 26 and informing it that you have been instructed by your Government to state that your Government looks to the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics for the compensation of any American nationals or firms [Page 202] who may have suffered losses as the result of the acts of nationalization of foreign property in the territories referred to in the instruction of the Commissariat for Justice of February 28 as Western Ukraine and Western Belorussiya.57

Hull
  1. The Chargé in the Soviet Union reported in his despatch No. 483, May 17, that a note in compliance with this instruction had been addressed to the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (461.11/874).↩