Roosevelt Papers: Telegram

The President’s Personal Representative (Hurley) to the President1

This morning I informed Russian Chargé d’Affaires2 that you would reside at your own Legation. I told him that this decision in my opinion was final and was made before any invitation had been received by you from Russia.3 All this was satisfactory at that time. At three o’clock this afternoon, the Russian Chargé d’Affaires called on me to say that the Russian Government cordially invites you to be its guest at its Embassy while here. I told him I would convey to you this generous invitation but inasmuch as you had already decided to reside at your own Legation and all preparations had been made [Page 440] accordingly I thought that perhaps it would be too late to make another change, although I knew that you and Stalin would spend a great deal of time together while here. In the meantime Darky4 is inspecting suggested quarters, Russian Embassy, so that if you should decide to accept the invitation, all details regarding quarters will be in hand.

  1. Sent via Army channels.
  2. Mikhail Alexeyevich Maximov.
  3. See the editorial note, ante, p. 310, and Lohbeck, p. 210.
  4. Code name for James J. Rowley of the United States Secret Service.