861.24/502½
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Acheson)
The Russian Ambassador called at his request, accompanied by Mr. Gromyko.99 He informed me that at his conference with the Under Secretary the Ambassador had requested that the Government reconsider applications for export licenses on articles already completed and that the Under Secretary had asked him to take this matter up with me.
The Ambassador, after an introduction in which he described his conviction that the German attack on Russia would result in the end of the Nazi régime, handed me four lists of articles, copies of which he had previously given to General Maxwell.1 He asked that we suspend for the time being any consideration of shipping priorities but reconsider applications for these articles, as all of them were needed by his Government. He further stated that Mr. Seldyakov2 of Amtorg had discussed the matter briefly with General Maxwell and had been discouraged by the procedural complications which seemed to be involved. He expressed the hope that there might be some central organization with which the Embassy and Amtorg might confer.
I stated to the Ambassador that we would immediately and sympathetically consider any requests which he made; that we already had set up a committee which would bring together the various governmental agencies whose consent was required to produce or export articles for Russia3 and that we would begin a re-examination of the [Page 773] items on his list. He promised that Mr. Seldyakov would be in Washington and would resubmit to us the export applications. He assured me that the items on the list were only those which had not been requisitioned, but which were finished and awaiting shipment, either at the ports or at factories. Subsequently the Ambassador telephoned to me to tell me that he was in error on this in respect to two items, which were a crane which had been requisitioned and pumps for destroyers, which he said were eighty percent completed.
I also informed the Ambassador that Mr. Charles Curtis would be the Chairman of the committee and requested that all his applications be filed at the State Department with me or with Mr. Curtis. I assured him that Mr. Curtis would be delighted to confer with the Amtorg officials at any time and that I would be available at any time that the Ambassador wished to see me.
We further agreed that if and when the Ambassador received requests from his Government for military items they would be presented to Mr. Welles, and, through him, to the President or such military authorities as the President might wish to have consider them before they were presented to him.
- Andrey Andreyevich Gromyko, Counselor of the Soviet Embassy.↩
- Brig. Gen. Russell L. Maxwell, Administrator of Export Control.↩
- Pavel Sergeyevich Seldyakov, vice president of the Amtorg Trading Corporation, New York, N. Y., official purchasing and sales agency of the Soviet Government in the United States.↩
- See memorandum of June 30, by Mr. Charles P. Curtis, Jr., p. 775.↩