811.20 Defense (Requisitions)/5

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of European Affairs (Henderson)

Mr. Oumansky, the Soviet Ambassador, called me by telephone this afternoon and in an extremely agitated tone of voice told me substantially the following:

An event which I fear will be of tremendous importance to American-Soviet relations has just taken place. I feel it my duty at once to bring this to your attention, and hope that I may have some explanation regarding it in the near future, in order that I may explain the situation to my Government.

On September 6, 1939 Stankoimport,13 a Soviet purchasing organization, ordered a machine tool (a planer) from the Consolidated Machine Tool Company, of Rochester, New York. The purchase price was $95,269. On May 13 the machine tool company notified the purchaser that the tool was ready for delivery. The machine was inspected by the purchaser and accepted. On May 20 the machine tool company announced that it was released for export. On May 22, that is, today, the machine tool company notified the purchaser that upon the request of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy it would not be able to effect delivery of the tool.

I feel that the act of American officials in preventing the delivery of this tool goes far beyond the moral embargo or acts directed against the Soviet Union to which I have called the attention of the Department during my several conversations with the Secretary and with representatives of the Department in Mr. Feis’ office. Would you [Page 298] please make the appropriate investigations and let me know the reasons for this intervention on the part of the American Government.

I told Mr. Oumansky that I would look into the matter immediately; that the information which he had just conveyed to me was the first intimation I had had regarding the action of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy; that although I was not yet in a position to state the reasons for the action, I was quite sure that there was no act of discrimination involved; that if I were to hazard a guess I would say that it had possibly been decided that the machine tool in question was needed in connection with our program to enlarge our defense industry; and that I would make inquiries and convey to him such information as I could obtain as soon as possible.

Mr. Oumansky replied that he was shocked at the information which had been given him; that he had communicated with me on the subject within five minutes after having received the news; and that he hoped that he could have a reply either today or tomorrow. He said that if the machine tool was to be taken over for the use of the American Government or for American defense industry, it was extremely important that he be informed whether or not machine tools being manufactured in this country for all foreign governments were being taken over, or whether those of only certain governments were being requisitioned. It was imperative that he make clear to his government whether or not a new policy of discrimination against Soviet trade was being inaugurated.

Mr. Oumansky also referred again to the conversations which he had had with Mr. Feis, Mr. Moffat, and myself several weeks ago, and said that he was still waiting for an answer to several questions which he had posed during that conversation. He pointed out that seven weeks had elapsed since his talk with the Secretary, and that he had not as yet received a definite answer whether these conversations would yield any positive results.

I told Mr. Oumansky that I understood that we were now prepared to discuss the matters to which he referred and hoped that within the next few days it would be possible for him to have a conversation with Mr. Moffat or some other official of the Department on the subject. I pointed out that extremely urgent matters arising from recent developments in Western Europe had subjected this Department and other Departments to such abnormal pressure that we were not able to move as fast as we would like.

Mr. Oumansky said that he hoped to be able to complete our discussions this week, since he would probably have to leave town over the week end for several days.

  1. All-Union Combine for the import of machine tools and instruments.