861.24/1146: Telegram
The Second Secretary of Embassy in the Soviet Union (Thompson) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 2—2:15 a.m.]
424. From Faymonville for Stettinius.
1. Refer to Time magazine for October 19, quoting Admiral Standley on Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.54 Mr. Thompson who was present at the press interview on which the Time article was based informs me that it does not accurately reflect the sense of the Ambassador’s remarks but for your information please note that my knowledge of contents of Second Protocol came from draft copy loaned to me by Admiral Standley. My knowledge of general shipments comes from cargo lists shown to me by the Ambassador’s Naval Attaché55 who receives lists, by agreement, from Chief of British Military Mission. My knowledge of special shipments comes from your cables which in all cases pass through State Department hands, and when Admiral Standley is in Moscow, cables reach him before they reach me. When the Ambassador is in Kuibyshev inbound cables and my answers thereto are repeated to him. Even when the Ambassador is absent my Lend-Lease cables inbound and outbound are repeated to [Page 741] Kuibyshev so that he may have a complete file upon his return. Please assure Harry Hopkins that his instructions to me to cooperate with other Government officials, have been fully complied with. [Faymonville.]
- During this interview with the correspondents, held just before his return to Washington for consultations, among other comments Ambassador Standley was reported to have made “the astounding admission that he did not know what commitments the U. S. had made to Russia, or to what degree they had been met. He said he believed that Brig. Gen. Philip R. Faymonville, head of the U. S. Supply Mission in Moscow, had such information.” (Time, October 19, 1942, p. 32.)↩
- Capt., later Rear Adm., Jack Harlan Duncan, Naval Attaché in the Soviet Union.↩