138 U.S.S.R./606: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:02 p.m.]
1733. Department’s 869, December 13, 4 p.m. At the present time I see no objection in principle to the resumption of the issuance of passports to American engineers desiring to proceed under contract to various parts of the Soviet Union. However, in view of the difficult living conditions, inadequate communication facilities and the fact that travel within the Soviet Union and particularly exit therefrom are made difficult by the Soviet authorities and entail excessive delays it would seem preferable to limit the issuance of such passports to special cases.
It would be extremely helpful if, when advising Umanski of the decision in principle with respect to the resumption of the issuance of passports to American engineers to enter the Soviet Union, Mr. Welles would say that he expects the Soviet Government to grant exit visas to the six Soviet wives of American citizens, to provide the promised [Page 419] additional housing for the Embassy personnel and to desist from discriminating against American newspaper correspondents in the application of the censorship.
With respect to the foregoing the following background may be useful to Mr. Welles: Three of the wives in question are married to American correspondents. Although I have been able during the past 16 months to extract a not inconsiderable number of exit visas for the Soviet wives of other American citizens, the three in question have been studiously passed by each time by the Soviet authorities. As all three of the husbands have over a period of years shown pronounced Leftist tendencies in their writing I presume that the Soviet Government may not desire their departure in view of the probability that they would be replaced by correspondents whose despatches might be more objective. The failure to obtain exit visas for their wives in at least two of the cases has, to my knowledge, operated conveniently to enable the husbands for several years to avoid transfer from Moscow.
Insofar as concerns the matter of housing the apartment definitely promised us by November 15 has not materialized, and there seems little prospect that without Mr. Welles’ assistance any housing will be forthcoming for an indefinite period of time. I am particularly concerned on this subject as several of the new clerks are due here within the course of the next few days and as our existing apartments are still badly overcrowed they will be compelled to reside in a hotel.
Insofar as concerns the discrimination against the representatives of the Associated Press and United Press they have for over a year now been denied telephone facilities which are regularly granted to the German and Italian correspondents and their despatches have been subjected to a much more severe censorship as evidenced by a comparison of identic despatches.